Columbia, SC

Weather Forecast Office

Orangeburg County, SC Zone Changes

Overview

Effective on or about Tuesday, March 30, 2021, at 8:00 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST), The NWS Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in Columbia, South Carolina (CAE) will change Public and Fire Weather Forecast Zones for Orangeburg County in central South Carolina. After this change, all public and fire weather forecasts and related products will use the new zone numbers and names shown below. If Tuesday, March 30, 2021 is declared a Critical Weather Day, this implementation will be postponed to Thursday, April 1, 2021.

One current zone (SCZ036) will be converted into three separate zones. These changes are intended to provide increased flexibility and improved accuracy of forecast and various watches, warnings and advisories in the public and fire weather programs. The new zones are as follows:

SCZ135: Northwestern Orangeburg County (to include the Neeses, North, Sawyerdale, Springfield, and Wolfton local fire districts)

SCZ136: Central Orangeburg County (to include the Bolentown, Canaan, Cordova, Edisto, Four Holes, Jamison, Norway, Orangeburg, Pinehill, Rowesville, and West Middle local fire districts)

SCZ137: Southeastern Orangeburg County (to include the Bowman, Branchville, Cattle Creek, Elloree, Eutawville, Holly Hill, Providence, Santee, and Vance local fire districts)

Below are graphics depicting these changes:

Previous Orangeburg County, SC Zone

New Orangeburg County, SC Zones

Northwestern Orangeburg County, SC Zone

Central Orangeburg County, SC Zone

Southeastern Orangeburg County, SC Zone

Justification

The zone changes are needed because Orangeburg County is the second largest county by area in South Carolina at about 1,128 sq. miles. It also extends just over 65 miles from the far western part to the far eastern part of the county. Forecast services will be improved by this new configuration given the differing weather conditions found across the county, especially during winter weather events and tropical systems that run parallel to the coast.

The new zone configuration will allow for more location specific forecasts, watches, warnings, and advisories. By decreasing the area covered by watches and warnings for events such as winter storms and tropical cyclones, unnecessary closures of schools and businesses should be reduced in the appropriate circumstances. Similarly, it will limit the opening of shelter to only necessary areas. It will also better serve the two media markets (Columbia and Charleston) that cover the county.

The proposed changes to the CAE zone boundaries have been closely coordinated with local partners and customers.

Affected Zones and Products

These zone changes require partners and users to take appropriate action to receive the new zone products using the Universal Generic Code (UGC) zone code format (Z) listed in Table 1. Products affected by this change are listed in Table 2.

Table 1: WFO CAE's Affected Public and Fire Weather Forecast Zones

Current Public/Fire Zone Name / UGC

New Public/Fire Zone Name / New UGC

Orangeburg / SCZ036

Northwestern Orangeburg / SCZ135

Central Orangeburg / SCZ136

Southeastern Orangeburg / SCZ137

Table 2: WFO CAE's Products Affected by These Changes

Product Name

WMO Header

AWIPS ID

Special Weather Statement

Hurricane Local Statement

Tropical Cyclone Watch/Warning

Zone Forecast Product

Hazardous Weather Outlook

Non-Precipitation Watch/Warning/Advisory

Winter Weather Watch/Warning/Advisory

Area Forecast Matrices

Fire Weather Message

Flood Watch/Warning/Advisory

Hydrologic Outlook

Fire Weather Watch/Red Flag Warning

Public Information Statement

Point Forecast Matrices

Area Forecast Discussion

Precipitation and Temperature Summary

Daily River and Lake Summary

Hydrologic Statement

Air Quality Alert

Air Quality Forecast

Flood Warning (River Fcst Point)

Flood Statement

Hydrologic Outlook

Flood Watch (River Fcst Point)

Flash Flood Warning

Flash Flood Statement

WWUS82 KCAE

WTUS82 KCAE

FPUS52 KCAE

FLUS42 KCAE

WWUS72 KCAE

WWUS42 KCAE

FOUS52 KCAE

FNUS52 KCAE

WGUS62 KCAE

FGUS72 KCAE

WWUS82 KCAE

NOUS42 KCAE

FOUS52 KCAE

FXUS62 KCAE

SXUS52 KCAE

FGUS52 KCAE

FGUS82 KCAE

SRUS42 KCAE

AEUS72 KCAE

WGUS46 KCAE

WGUS82 KCAE

FGUS73 KCAE

WGUS63 KCAE

WGUS51 KCAE

WGUS71 KCAE

SPSCAE

HLSCAE

TCVCAE

ZFPCAE

HWOCAE

NPWCAE

WSWCAE

AFMCAE

FWFCAE

FFACAE

ESFCAE

RFWCAE

PNSCAE

PFMCAE

AFDCAE

HYDCAE

RVDCAE

RVSCAE

RVACAE

AQACAE

AQICAE

FLWCAE

FLSCAE

ESFCAE

FFACAE

FFWCAE

FFSCAE

If you are affected by these changes, take the appropriate action so your system(s) recognize the new zone (Z) Universal Geographic Codes (UGC) and the new zone alignments and names.

An updated public zone map shapefile is available for download at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/pubzone.htm

An updated fire zone map shapefile is available for download at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/firezone.htm