Dry Spells

Little rain, few tidal floods, and fewer updates.

It’s been 16 months since my last post. We haven’t even been in this drought that long! Hopefully, breaking my newsletter drought will bring some much-needed rainfall. The long-range forecast looks hopeful.

Snow in late January was the first time in 37 years that Charleston had seen consecutive years of accumulated snowfall.

On the drought…

What felt like a dry spell for Mean High Water was actually running parallel to one of the most significant regional droughts in recorded history. The NWS reported in its April drought statement that the Charleston Airport had recorded below-average rainfall from September 2025 through March 2026, seven consecutive months, and the 2nd driest period on record. April didn’t get any better. It’s hard to make a living taking photographs of flooding during a drought, and thankfully, I don’t have to. We desperately need rain.

And the tides…

As of May 22, we’ve seen 12 tides exceed the flood stage in Charleston Harbor, which is near the recent average. All 12 tidal floods this year have remained below the moderate flooding threshold (7.5’ MLLW), so the impacts have been confined to low-lying areas like Hagood Avenue and Gadsden Creek.

A brief review of flooding in 2025

I posted a brief summary of flooding in 2025 on Instagram, and I meant to post a more detailed overview here in December. And then in January. And then work and life got in the way and here we are in May. August was really the headline of Charleston’s floods in 2025. It was the 3rd-wettest August on record, thanks to a particularly wet weekend on the 22nd and 23rd, but we still ended the year below average. Here’s a brief summary of what the numbers looked like:

Tidal Flooding: 52 Minor (>7’ MLLW), 14 Moderate (>7.5’ MLLW), 2 Major(>8’ MLLW)

Highest Tide: October 10 – 8.46’ MLLW Tide (13th highest on record)

August 22-23 – Moderate tidal flooding with 8”+ of rainfall (2-3” over a 30 min period), 3rd wettest August on record (16” total)

41.95” total rainfall (slightly below average)

Flooding in 2025

A drought is a strange thing to document for a project about flooding and rising water. But the absence is part of the record too. What the land looks like when it's dry and how quickly people forget the flooding when the streets are clear - that's worth paying attention to. A goal of this project is to capture shifting baselines, droughts included. More soon, and hopefully in the rain.