Spring Weather in Columbia South Carolina, United States

Daily high temperatures increase by 22°F, from 64°F to 86°F, rarely falling below 51°F or exceeding 93°F.

Daily low temperatures increase by 24°F, from 42°F to 66°F, rarely falling below 30°F or exceeding 72°F.

For reference, on July 19, the hottest day of the year, temperatures in Columbia typically range from 73°F to 92°F, while on January 17, the coldest day of the year, they range from 36°F to 56°F.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average spring temperatures. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.

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The spring in Columbia experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 44% throughout the season. The lowest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 40% on April 30.

The clearest day of the spring is April 30, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 60% of the time.

For reference, on February 11, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 51%, while on October 26, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 65%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In Columbia, the chance of a wet day over the course of the spring is very rapidly increasing, starting the season at 27% and ending it at 36%.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 48% on July 27, and its lowest chance is 19% on October 30.

Rainfall

To show variation within the season and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day rainfall during the spring in Columbia is gradually decreasing, starting the season at 3.7 inches, when it rarely exceeds 5.8 inches or falls below 1.6 inches, and ending the season at 3.3 inches, when it rarely exceeds 5.4 inches or falls below 1.5 inches.

The lowest average 31-day accumulation is 2.6 inches on May 6.

Over the course of the spring in Columbia, the length of the day is very rapidly increasing. From the start to the end of the season, the length of the day increases by 2 hours, 47 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 1 minute, 50 seconds, and weekly increase of 12 minutes, 51 seconds.

The shortest day of the spring is March 1, with 11 hours, 29 minutes of daylight and the longest day is May 31, with 14 hours, 16 minutes of daylight.

The latest sunrise of the spring in Columbia is 7:40 AM on March 10 and the earliest sunrise is 1 hour, 26 minutes earlier at 6:14 AM on May 31.

The earliest sunset is 6:21 PM on March 1 and the latest sunset is 2 hours, 9 minutes later at 8:30 PM on May 31.

Daylight saving time (DST) starts at 3:00 AM on March 10, 2024, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour later.

For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 6:13 AM and sets 14 hours, 25 minutes later, at 8:38 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 7:25 AM and sets 9 hours, 53 minutes later, at 5:19 PM.

The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation.

The figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the spring of 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.

We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.

The chance that a given day will be muggy in Columbia is very rapidly increasing during the spring, rising from 0% to 47% over the course of the season.

For reference, on August 4, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 90% of the time, while on January 30, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time.

This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.

The average hourly wind speed in Columbia is decreasing during the spring, decreasing from 7.9 miles per hour to 6.4 miles per hour over the course of the season.

For reference, on March 7, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 8.0 miles per hour, while on August 7, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 5.5 miles per hour.

The highest daily average wind speed during the spring is 8.0 miles per hour on March 7.

The wind direction in Columbia during the spring is predominantly out of the west from March 1 to March 29, from April 9 to April 15, and from April 21 to May 9 and the south from March 29 to April 9, from April 15 to April 21, and from May 9 to May 31.

Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).

The growing season in Columbia typically lasts for 7.9 months (240 days), from around March 19 to around November 14, rarely starting before February 24 or after April 12, and rarely ending before October 27 or after December 3.

During the spring in Columbia, the chance that a given day is within the growing season is very rapidly increasing rising from 17% to 100% over the course of the season.

Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.

The average accumulated growing degree days in Columbia are very rapidly increasing during the spring, increasing by 1,359°F, from 211°F to 1,570°F, over the course of the season.

This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

The average daily incident shortwave solar energy in Columbia is very rapidly increasing during the spring, rising by 2.4 kWh, from 4.3 kWh to 6.7 kWh, over the course of the season.

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Columbia are 34.001 deg latitude, -81.035 deg longitude, and 285 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Columbia contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 262 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 229 feet. Within 10 miles also contains only modest variations in elevation (463 feet). Within 50 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (748 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Columbia is covered by artificial surfaces (97%), within 10 miles by artificial surfaces (62%) and trees (26%), and within 50 miles by trees (57%) and cropland (24%).