The Rock Hill/Charlotte commute: Rain, snow, floods — sometimes all in a single trip
Being a commuter in the Rock Hill region means you might face flooded roads … or snow … or ice.
And there’s even a chance you could face all those conditions on the same day.
The Carolinas’ generally mild climate means motorists rarely have to deal with the heavy snow and slick roads that are a part of winter life in the North. But the Rock Hill region isn’t immune to weather-related conditions that can turn your commute into an adventure.
Each day thousands of drivers commute in a corridor that extends north-south from Charlotte through Rock Hill. It also extends east-west through Union and southern Mecklenburg counties in N.C., across the S.C. border into Indian Land, Fort Mill, Tega Cay, Clover and into Gaston County. They travel a network of roads that can carry them through varied weather conditions.
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The two biggest concerns are floods, and hard-to-predict winter conditions.
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If you’ve lived in the Rock Hill region for more than a few winters, you know the state line often marks the boundary between frozen precipitation and rain.
Cold rain can be falling in Rock Hill or Fort Mill, while sleet is coming down in Charlotte, and snow is falling near Lake Norman.
Longtime residents often refer to Interstate 85 as the dividing line in winter storms, but National Weather Service meteorologist Trisha Palmer says the highway’s location is a coincidence.
“I-85 is close to the elevation change, especially in the Upstate of South Carolina,” said Palmer, Chief Warning Coordinator for the Weather Service’s office in Greer. “That’s why it often seems to be the dividing line between various forms of precipitation.”
A variety of conditions
But Palmer said residents along and near I-85, including the Rock Hill region, can face a variety of conditions during winter storms.
“Part of it is the track that many of our storms take in the winter,” she said.
Storm systems sometimes form in the Gulf of Mexico, then swing up the East Coast. Those systems spread precipitation inland, and if there’s enough cold air in place, the precipitation can fall as snow, sleet or rain that freezes on contact with the surface.
That state-line effect was clearly on display last winter.
A storm system that crossed the Carolinas on Jan. 16, 2022, dropped up to 8 inches of snow in Greenville. Nearly 3 inches accumulated in Charlotte. But much of the Rock Hill area got sleet or freezing rain.
Palmer said elevation and latitude both play roles in what type of precipitation falls.
Either way, Rock Hill-area commuters can encounter a wide variety of conditions, especially when driving north toward Charlotte or northwest toward Gastonia.
Flooding issues
The other headache for motorists is flooding, and it can happen any time.
One obvious threat comes from tropical weather systems. Weakening hurricanes and tropical storms have triggered floods in the Rock Hill area many times in recent years.
That was the case in September 2018, when Hurricane Florence dumped heavy rain across the region, flooding numerous roads.
And in early October 2015, the combination of a stalled frontal system and a plume of tropical moisture combined to dump more than 10 inches of rain in southern parts of the Rock Hill area. Some of the worst flooding in state history was reported in that storm.
However, it doesn’t take tropical moisture to cause flooded roads.
Several inches of rain fell in a storm last November, triggering floods on dozens of York County roads, including near Regent Park in Fort Mill and on Dave Lyle Boulevard in Rock Hill.
The Weather Service’s Trisha Palmer said the large number of streams and creeks feeding into the Catawba River are partly responsible for floods.
“There are just a number of creeks that carry water into the river,” she said.
One particularly flood-prone area is along Twelve Mile Creek, which flows from Union County, N.C., into the northern part of Lancaster County.
Palmer said growth in York and Lancaster counties also is responsible for an increase in floods.
“As the area grows, there is more concrete – driveways, roads, sidewalks,” Palmer said. “Concrete tends to cause rapid run-off of water during storms. And that increases the flooding risk.”
Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle
