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| Image by Stephanie French, 2018 |
Latest update: 6 December 2024
Snowstorms do not happen very often in Beaufort County, SC. And on account of that fact, locals tend to take extra precautions when snow is predicted. This puts us in line for a lot of ribbing (some good-natured; some not-so-good natured) by the more-recently-relocated-from-more-Northern-climes area residents. This area has a lot of elevated causeways barely above the marshes, dirt roads, and bridges and few, if any, winter weather moving equipment. A dusting of snow, extremely low temperatures, and/or a bit of ice on the roads, and we natives tend to head home and hole up until it gets back to our usual balmy winter conditions in the 60s.
On average, snow flurries occur along the South Carolina coastal plain about once every three years. (1) There is approximately a 9% chance of snowfall in Beaufort County each year. (2) Before Winter Storm Grayson arrived on January 3, 2018, we had last seen minimal amounts of snowfall in 2010 and 2006. Because snowfall is a relatively rare event, local media tend to at least provide mentions of the frozen precipitation so a researcher can use our newspaper microfilm to look up specific past snows.
It appears that the record snowfall in Beaufort County remains the blizzard of February 10-11, 1973. Local photographer Lucille Hasell Culp captured images of that event. Six inches of snow were on the ground. However the most snowfall in a 24-hour period was 5 inches on December 23, 1989. This snow stuck around in spots to give Beaufort County a White Christmas. You can see photographs that she took of the 1989, 1973 and 1943 snowfalls in our Lucille Hasell Culp Collection hosted online by the Lowcountry Digital Library. (Please note: the images in the Lucille Hasell Culp Collection are copyrighted by the Beaufort County Library).
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| Image copyrighted by Beaufort County Library |
But Beaufort County has seen other significant
amounts of snowfall that are documented in our vertical files and image collections. For example, the "heaviest fall of snow in a half century" happened in
mid-February 1899.
According to Susan Hazel Rice's diary it began as a sleet storm on February 12 and the cold stuck around to freeze the water in the vases she had inside her home on Valentine's Day. The snow did not begin to melt until the temperatures warmed a bit after lunchtime on February 15th. (3) This same storm resulted in the death of Squirrel Heyward who froze to death out on Broad River while his boat companion Abram Scott suffered from frost bite but appears to have survived. (4)
At the Crofut house, Mrs. Ellen Crofut mentioned in her diary entry on February 12 that "Everything out of doors is covered in ice" and feared for the plants in her garden. She gave us temperature readings the next several days:
Last night the thermometer registered nine and to-day at noon twelve degrees above zero: unprecedented record for this place. A strange sight greeted our eyes this morning, the ground, houses, and everything covered with snow and ice and snow still falling. It did not stop till about noon.
Her husband, James, stayed home - and because their house was so cold, he ate supper in his bedroom and she ate hers in the kitchen. The well at the Fullers froze so they came over to get water from the Crofuts. Even inside, she feared that the extreme cold would cause harm to their house plants and gold fish.
Valentine's Day was even colder: "Clear. but very cold: thermometer registered 8 [degrees] last night. The snow and ice did not melt at all today. The girls made a large snow man, he was seated on the carriage step and was the best one I ever saw." Fred Christensen coped with the unusual circumstance in a novel way: He had rigged up a "sleigh... improvised from the body of a buggy put on wooden runners."
By Ash Wednesday, February 15, the form of precipitation had switched to rain. "Weather has moderated very much but is still quite cold." Rita Crofut reported to Ellen that at religious services held that morning, everyone sat as close as possible to the stove. The final sentence says "Found one of the gold fish dead this morning." (5)
We know about a snowfall in late February 1914 on account of a memorial written by "A Friend" for Wyman Johnson: "His white spirit going out while the ground was covered with snow, was only a fitting end to his early career and symbolic of the life that he will live now beyond the vale." (6)
Fred Christensen wrote about this snowstorm in his diary on Wednesday, February 25, 1914.
We woke up this morning to find the ground covered with a fine covering of sleet and fine snow. During the forenoon snow in large flakes fell for a couple of hours. There must have been a couple of inches of snow on the grd [ground?]. Of course business was pretty much suspended while every one went snowballing. During the afternoon and evening there was rain and sleet, so that by night trees and telephone wires etc. were encased in ice.
As expected, the snow and ice caused damage around town. The Christensen's diary entry the following day:
Many limbs broke during the night under the weight of snow and ice. In the morning there was a hard crust, capable of holding up a light man, while all branches and trees, and all others exposed things were covered with ice. Very pretty, but much anxiety is felt for orange trees, truck crops, and tender plants.
During the day the ice melted and much of the snow disappeared. Going almost as fast as it came. Thermometer at 30 [degrees] on our piazza about 8 a.m.
The Mayflower returned from Bluffton last night in spite of the storm. (7)
Clippings in our "Weather and Climate" vertical file indicate a Beaufort Blizzard of late February 1958 during which a Royal Esso Station attendant called snow "White Rain" and Eddie Boyer quipped at the post office "People are moving to Beaufort from Florida because there is less snow here." (8)
There have even been at least two documented White Christmases!
Update: A few people shared images of their experience with Winter Storm Grayson with us for future researchers to see when I asked for them to do so in the first version of this post. The contributed digital images were printed out to reside in the BDC's "Snowstorm (3 January 2018)" vertical file. In 50 years time I am sure some residents of Beaufort County will scoff at how a few inches of snowfall can stymie governmental operations in a coastal South Carolina community.
The morale of this post? Though snow and cold doesn't happen here very often - and when it does it usually doesn't stick around for days or weeks- it does indeed happen occasionally -as the record shows.
Sources:
(1) "General Description of South Carolina's Climate" by the South Carolina State Climatology Office, http://www.dnr.sc.gov/climate/sco/sc_climate.html Accessed 5 January 2018
(2) "South Carolina Snowfall Climatology" by the South Carolina State Climatology Office, http://dnr.sc.gov/climate/sco/ClimateData/cli_table_snowfall_climatology.php Accessed 5 January 2018
(3) February 12 - 15, 1899 diary entries by Susan Hasell Rice. BDC Archives.
(4) Palmetto Post (Port Royal, SC), 16 February 1899, p. 3.
(5) February 13 - 15, 1899 diary entries by Ellen Crofut. BDC Archives.
(6) "Death of Wyman Johnson," Beaufort Gazette (Beaufort, SC), March 5, 1914, p. 1.
(7) February 25-28, 1914 diary entries by Fred Christensen.
(8) "Weather-Wise", Beaufort Gazette, 20 February 1958, Section B, p. 5.
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