Weather Blog: A look back at the historic 2014 ice storm
11-year anniversary of a devastating ice event
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - In 2014 the CSRA experienced a generational ice event. It first started as cold rain which moved into the region on February 11th and would later transition to freezing rain and snow the following 2 days.
It was a classic winter setup for the area with a cold high-pressure system north of the region creating a wedge of cold air near the surface with a coastal low-pressure system traveling south and east of the CSRA.
The more devastating storm would happen Wednesday the 12th with temperatures hovering near freezing all day and through the night. Rain continued to fall on freezing surfaces leading to ice accumulations that reached up to an inch or more in a large swath of the CSRA.
The National Weather Service wrote this in their post-storm discussion from 2014, “the most significant impact was felt across the Central Savannah River Area of Eastern Georgia, and across the Southern and Eastern Midlands of South Carolina. In those areas, there was a deep layer of warm air aloft, with a shallow layer of sub-freezing surface temperatures. The warm layer was deep enough to completely melt any falling snow, while the shallow cold layer was not deep enough to change it into ice pellets. This meant that all of the rain that fell across this region fell as Freezing Rain, with many areas receiving between one half of an inch to as much as an inch of ice on every surface. Significant tree and powerline damage occurred across this region”.
Here are local ice totals from the National Weather Service:
| LOCATION | ICE TOTALS |
|---|---|
| AUGUSTA AREA | 1.00″ |
| EDGEFIELD | 0.50″ |
| AIKEN | 1.20″ |
| WAYNESBORO | 0.75″ |
| BARNWELL | 1.25″ |
Ice on power lines and trees can increase their weight up to 30 times and with over an inch of ice for a good portion of our area many trees and powerlines were damaged. This led to a good portion of the CSRA being without power for several days and some spots went nearly two weeks without power.
The winter storm ended up producing 736,000 cubic yards of debris in Richmond County, 535,000 in Columbia County, and 350,000 in Aiken County.
Temperatures fell well below freezing by Wednesday evening leading to snowfall which brought over an inch to Augusta and 2-4 inches fell across the northern CSRA.
The system eventually cleared out Thursday morning on the 13th leaving behind one of the worst disasters our area has seen prior to Helene.
On the 14th, just a day later, a 4.1 magnitude earthquake occurred at 10:23 pm with the epicenter near Edgefield, SC.
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