Name: Flood in South Carolina, December 24, 2002
Start: 2002-12-24T19:00
End: 2002-12-24T23:00
Location: South Carolina

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS GSP wrote it up.

A creek flooded part of highway 29 near the Georgia border.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 24, 6:45 PM EST, 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 24, 6:45 PM EST, 15 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
645 PM EST TUE DEC 24 2002

KGSP RADAR INDICATING NO ACTIVITY AT THIS TIME...THOUGH SURFACE OBS
INDICATE SOME VERY LIGHT RAIN SCATTERED ABOUT. SURFACE FEATURES TO
SW GENERATING ONLY ISOLATED ACTIVITY. SHOWERS IN CENTRAL TN
ASSOCIATED WITH VORT...AND WILL AFFECT MOUNTAINS IN SEVERAL HOURS.
WILL TRIM EVENING POPS TO CHANCE. MIN TEMP FORECAST LOOKS GOOD...BUT
ADJUSTED EVENING TEMP/DEW POINT DOWN A COUPLE OF DEGREES. MESOETA
WINDS DELAY FROPA A BIT. UPDATED OVERNIGHT TRENDS OF
TEMPERATRU...DEW POINT...RH AND WIND CHILL.

HAVE NOT YET DECIDED ON WHETHER TO REMOVE POPS E OF MOUNTAINS
OVERNIGHT. CASE FOR POPS WEAK...ESPECIALLY AS LOW LEVEL FLOW STARTS
TO TURN TO W COMPONENT. WILL EVALUATE/COLLABORATE FURTHER.

AS FOR WIND/SNOW IN MOUNTAINS...850/925 MB FLOW JUST STARTS TO
OBTAIN AN ORTHOGONAL COMPONENT TOWARD END OF PERIOD...AND RUC 850 MB
VELOCITIES AROUND 30 KTS...SO ANY ADVISORY CAN WAIT UNTIL SECOND
PERIOD. QUESTION IS WHETHER WIND WATCH NEEDED NC MOUNTAINS...AS
SUGGESTED BY ETA BUFKIT MOMENTUM TRANSFER AND SHALLOW MIXED LAYER.
WILL EVALUATE/COLLABORATE FURTHER.

FCSTID =    7
GSP   38  47  26  47 /  40  10   0   0
AND   39  49  27  48 /  40  10   0   0
CLT   39  48  24  49 /  30  10   0   0
HKY   35  42  24  44 /  40  10   0   0
AVL   34  39  23  41 /  50  20   0   0

.GSP...
GA...NONE.
NC...NONE.
SC...NONE.

O7

Hazardous weather outlook, Dec 24, 6:05 AM EST, 12 hours 55 minutes before

GAZ010-017-018-026-028-029-NCZ033>037-048>059-062>072-082-SCZ001>014-
019-241300-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
605 AM EST TUE DEC 24 2002

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA...
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA...AND EXTREME NORTHEAST GEORGIA.

.DAY ONE...

WIDESPREAD RAIN...FALLING HEAVY AT TIMES...WILL CONTINUE INTO
THIS EVENING. A FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR PARTS OF THE AREA.
FOR FURTHER DETAILS...PLEASE SEE THE LATEST FFAGSP ISSUED BY
THIS OFFICE.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...

WINDY CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP CHRISTMAS DAY. SNOW
SHOWERS ARE LIKELY ACROSS PARTS OF THE NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS
AS WELL...WITH SOME ACCUMULATION POSSIBLE.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT ANY FLOODING OR AREAS OF HIGH
WATER WHICH ARE OBSERVED.

55

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Dec 24, 2:45 PM EST, 4 hours 15 minutes before

NCZ033-034-048>055-058-059-062>067-250230-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
245 PM EST TUE DEC 24 2002

...STRONG WINDS POSSIBLE FOR NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS ON WEDNESDAY...

LOW PRESSURE DEVELOPING OVER THE MID ATLANTIC STATES WILL PRODUCE
STRONG WINDS OVER THE NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS.  THE WINDS ARE
EXPECTED TO BECOME QUITE STRONG WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.  WHILE HIGHER
WINDS OF 60 MPH ARE EXPECTED ON THE HIGHER PEAKS...MOST VALLEYS AND
POPULATION CENTERS IN THE NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS CAN EXPECT WINDS
OF 30 TO 35 MPH.

ELSEWHERE IN THE PIEDMONT OF NORTH CAROLINA...THE UPSTATE OF SOUTH
CAROLINA AND EXTREME NORTHEAST GEORGIA NORTHWEST WINDS OF 20 TO
25 MPH ARE EXPECTED.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILL CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF
THIS DEVELOPING WEATHER SITUATION.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flood, Anderson

When: December 24, 7:00 PM EST to 11:00 PM EST
Where: Anderson forecast zone
Reported by: FIRE DEPT/RESCUE SQUAD
Coordinates: 34.519, -82.638 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Flood: Flooding that develops more slowly than a flash flood: rivers leaving their banks, or water standing over land for an extended time.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in South Carolina in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in South Carolina, December 2002

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5326742.