After the rain has gone, York, Chester, Lancaster counties to see drier weather

Still soaked from three days of sporadic rainfall, York, Chester and Lancaster counties lwill start drying out Wednesday, forecasters say.

Rock Hill recorded nearly an inch of rain from 8 a.m. Monday to 8 a.m. Tuesday, said Andrew Kimball, a meteoroglogist with the National Weather Service in Greenville. In the same timeframe, Chester and Lancaster counties saw 1 to 2 inches of rainfall.

A severe thunderstorm that blew through the area Monday afternoon toppled trees in Lancaster County, and lightning during the Monday afternoon storm is believed to have sparked the fire that destroyed a Rock Hill home.

“It was a pretty strong storm that went right through there,” Kimball said.

Lancaster County Fire Marshal Stephen Blackwelder said multiple trees were reported down on roadways and utility lines Monday, and at one point more than 1,500 residents were without power.

One tree landed on a home on McCowan Lane, Blackwelder said. No one was injured. Public works crews were also working to repair a portion of Pursuit Drive in Indian Land that was washed out Monday.

Blackwelder emphasized that the storm system that came through Monday was not a tornado, and that the 2 inches of rain in some parts further soaked the already-saturated ground.

Parts of York County, particularly Rock Hill, had received 7 to 8 inches of rain over the weekend heading into Monday’s storms, with flash flooding occurring in many parts of the city along the Interstate 77 corridor. Forecasters said the weekend rainfall was the result of a stalled storm system.

Wednesday will bring cooler temperatures with a slight chance for showers, Kimball said. Rain chances decrease to 30 percent Thursday with a dry weekend in the forecast.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 1:06 PM with the headline "After the rain has gone, York, Chester, Lancaster counties to see drier weather."