What's behind South Carolina’s recent earthquakes, plus, a cold blast and fire danger in Florida

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Well, residents of South Carolina have seen a noticeable uptick in seismic activity so

far this year, with multiple earthquakes occurring near the Charleston and Low Country region

in recent weeks.

Residents there are understandably curious about what is going on.

Data from the US Geological Survey shows several small quakes clustered near Charleston

and adjacent areas in February, you know, with magnitudes mostly between roughly 1.5 and

2.9.

One of the strongest this year, a magnitude 2.9 quake on the seventh was felt by many residents

followed by a magnitude 2.5 event.

The most recent quake happened on the 15th when a magnitude 2.0 was recorded near

Ermo.

These episodes reflect a string of weak tremors, with nine small earthquakes detected in

the area since January.

Although these quakes are felt locally, they are too small to cause any major damage, unlike

states on the west coast, where shaking is frequent due to plate boundaries.

South Carolina's quakes happen within the interior of the North American tectonic plate.

This makes them intraplate earthquakes, quakes that occur away from the plate edges.

The state's crust contains ancient fault lines and geologic structures that formed hundreds

of millions of years ago during mountain building and continental rifting.

Many of these faults lie buried beneath sediments and aren't visible at the surface.

Stress slowly builds in the earth's crust over long periods due to tectonic forces,

and this stress is released along these older faults, rock breaks, and shifts producing

earthquakes.

Almost 70% of South Carolina's earthquakes occur in the coastal plain, especially around

zones like Ravenel, Hollywood, Middleton, Place, Somerville, and Bowman.

Size-missity in South Carolina is not a new thing.

In fact, the 1886 Charleston earthquake estimated between magnitude 7.0 and 7.3 was one of

the strongest in eastern US history and caused widespread destruction.

While such large events are rare, they show that the region's ancient faults can produce

significant quakes.

Well, a lot of the focus this week has been on the snowstorm that blanketed the northeast

under feet of snow, and rightly so, but Florida's weather is now coming into focus this week

as sweeping changes are on the way there.

Florida's near-record heat has been swapped by much colder air that moved in this weekend,

an ongoing lack of rain, some wind, and dry brush will raise the risk of wildfires once

again.

Orlando, Jacksonville, and other communities across Northern Florida were close to record

highs on Saturday with temperatures climbing well into the 80s.

The spotty showers trailing the cold front across Central and Southern Florida this past

weekend did little to ease the dry conditions there.

Behind the front, gusty northwest winds ushered in a big cool down and quickly dried out

any dampened brush once again.

The coldest stretch in the front's wake will occur this morning as temperatures will dip

below freezing from north of Orlando into the Florida Panhandle.

A light frost is not expected to impact the citrus crop though, and the coldest spots

in the early morning acue weather real-field temperatures could dip into the 20s.

Dry northwest winds allowed a fire threat to expand across much of Southern Florida.

To start out the week, the elevated fire risk came less than a week after a brush fire

destroyed a plant nursery in Kassemi, Florida.

The use of open flames, power equipment, or anything that might produce sparks or burning

embers, is being strongly discouraged this week, an intensifying drought is exacerbating

the fire risk.

The second highest drought category extreme drought has expanded by 62% across Florida

over the past month.

Through February 19th, Jacksonville is experiencing its 18th driest start to the year-on-record

with 1.75 inches of rain while Orlando is having the 13th driest start with 1.14 inches.

Meanwhile, more than 60% of Louisiana and 23% of Mississippi are in a drought.

The Keach Byram drought index, a key indicator of wildfire potential, is high across most

of the state and in the very high to extreme category across Southern Florida.

The winds will relax by Tuesday, easing the fire threat a bit, but the humidity will

remain low, so extra care should still be exercised.

Wednesday will be somewhat more humid, which should significantly reduce the fire risk.

However, meaningful rain is not expected until later on this week, or possibly the weekend

allowing the drought to continue full throttle.

The fire risk is not expected to ease anytime soon.

A higher-than-average brush fire risk is expected in Florida throughout this spring, according

to AccuWeather's long-range team of meteorologists.

That's all for now.

You can find more regional forecasts and science-based articles at AccuWeather.com and for your local

forecast at your fingertips, download the AccuWeather app.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Be safe.

I'll be back tomorrow with more from AccuWeather.