South Carolina's Drought Response Committee met Thursday and lowered the drought status for Horry and Marion counties from severe to moderate.
It also elevated some counties in the state to moderate, which means now all South Carolina counties are in the moderate phase.
The committee says its decision to maintain or upgrade the status for some counties was due to continuing concern over agricultural impacts, low stream flows and the potential for increased forest fire activity.
The committee said recent rainfall from storms like Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee did provide some relief to the Pee Dee area, but conditions in other places in the state are growing more serious.
In a news release Thursday, David Tompkins with the S.C. Department of Agriculture said, "Pastures, grazing lands and hay production have been an ongoing issue for many livestock owners. We're also concerned with the drought impact on cotton and soy crops."
Darryl Jones with the S.C. Forestry Commission reported, "We had an extremely busy summer and our concern is for the potential of another active wildfire season going into fall. Hurricane Irene and other productive storms have delivered improvement of drought conditions in Horry and Marion counties, which has allowed us to control wildfires in those areas. We're still concerned about conditions around the state over the next several weeks."
State Climatologist Hope Mizzell says October and November are climatologically the driest months of the year.
The South Carolina Drought Committee Chairman Ken Rentiers says they will continue to monitor the situation and reconvene in three weeks.
