According to both the South Carolina Drought Response Committee and the United States Drought Monitor, drought conditions across the Midlands are getting worse.
The SCDRC held a conference call Monday where it was decided to upgrade the drought status for 15 counties statewide.
The status was upgraded from normal drought status to incipient, which is known as the first stage of drought.
While the SCDRC noted that no major drought impacts have been reported, the status change is significant for both public safety and financial prosperity.
"When you have dry conditions, it’s compounding the potential for brush fires," says SkyWACH Meteorologist Justin Kier.
"Low humidity and gusty winds combined with dry forest fuels, like pine stray or leaves, can lead to problematic situations.
Unfortunately we’re entering into the time of year when wild fires peak in our area."
The South Carolina Forestry Commission mentioned their concern on the conference call by highlighting the higher brush fire potential and the potential for poor seeding survival during the tree planting season.
The forecast La Nina pattern for the winter generally means warmer and drier conditions for the Midlands.
One of the tools used by meteorologists and climatologists, known as the U.S. Drought Monitor, lists every county in the Midlands except Clarendon County in the first stage of drought.

"These leaves are used to treat stomachaches," Nzarayebani said with a smile.
"You either boil the leaves, then drink the water, or you can chew the leaves raw and swallow the juice.
These leaves are good for treating any kind of stomach upset."
But such medicinal plants are growing rarer in Zimbabwe these days.
But one of the most serious problems appears to be the country’s lengthening droughts, associated with climate change.
But those plants are disappearing.
He said he still held out hope that some would return if rains remained good.
"The plants are disappearing, both fruit and herbal medicines, but we cannot do anything.
Lawrence Nyagwande, a plant expert with Environment Africa, an environmental organization based in Zimbabwe, said there was little doubt that droughts linked to strengthening climate change were a big contributor to the loss of Zimbabwe’s medicinal plants.
"If some plants are disturbed by droughts they will not regenerate even when the good rains come."

Unfortunately, small traces of rainfall are not adding up, and now a drought is sneaking into the High Plains.
Certain areas in the Panhandle are abnormally dry.
Meteorologist Corey Simma said this year has been strange because of the amount of heavy rainfall during the first two-thirds of the year, and then the lack thereof recently.
"Because we’ve been so dry over about the last month and a half, the drought is starting to creep back a little bit.
We are abnormally dry in some portions of the eastern and the northeast panhandle in addition to the southeast, which is usually an area down southeast where we see the most rain here on the panhandle.
Over the last month and a half again that’s not really been the case," said Meteorologist Corey Simma.
Because we have so much dry grass around the Panhandle, meteorologists told us it does not take much to start a wildfire.

The South Carolina Drought Response Committee changed its outlook Monday for 15 counties, including York and Lancaster.
Almost two-thirds of the state is now in a drought watch phase.
Chester County, also in the incipient or watch phase, has been at worse than normal conditions since late 2015.
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Recent rain in the upper Savannah Basin actually brought Anderson and Oconee counties back into normal conditions.
The committee noted there weren’t major drought impacts, but there is concern with La Nina conditions.
Potential is there for a dry winter, a time when rainfall often refills groundwater and surface water sources.
Some of those listings were present in South Carolina as recently as this spring.
The drought committee will continue to monitor conditions.

Missouri and Arkansas firefighters have battled several wildfires in recent days, their work made more difficult by winds gusting to nearly 30 mph while blowing bone-dry air.
Much of the Ozarks is already in severe drought conditions, prompting fire officials to urge people not to burn anything outdoors.
"For our fall season, from September through November, we’re 3 1/2 inches below normal for rainfall," said Gene Hatch, meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Springfield.
Hatch said fire crews have been fighting wildfires north of the Reuter area in Taney County and another fire east of West Plains near Winona.
Those have been contained but were not completely out, Hatch said.
At the Buffalo National River, fire crews have been working to extinguish a blaze in the steep hills near Pruitt Landing.
Hatch said firefighters could get a break overnight.
A cold front is forecast to bring a 50 percent chance of up to a 1/2 inch of rain across southwest Missouri and northeast Arkansas, along with much higher humidity levels.
Wind gusts up to 33 mph Tuesday afternoon will ease overnight to less than 10 mph on Wednesday.
Eastern Missouri is unlikely to get much rain, but Hatch said higher humidity levels should help reduce the wildfire risk.

Bamberg County had less than four inches of rain in the last two months, leading state officials to say it’s in an “incipient drought.” Incipient status is considered a “drought watch” phase before a county enters into a moderate drought.
A Denmark-area volunteer recorded about 3.56 inches of rain since the end of September, according to the National Weather Service’s Community, Collaborative, Rain, Hail and Snow Network.
A volunteer near Ehrhardt reported 1.84 inches of rain during the same period.
The South Carolina Drought Response Committee met Monday via conference call to discuss the status of the state’s counties.
Orangeburg and Calhoun counties remained drought free, according to the Drought Response Committee.
"Above-normal rainfalls in the upper Savannah Basin over the past several months have improved streamflow conditions in Oconee and Anderson counties," SCDNR Senior Hydrologist Scott Harder stated.
"The improved streamflow conditions supported the removal of an incipient drought status for these two counties.” During the meeting, some committee members expressed concern about the potential for dry conditions due to La Nina.
While there haven’t been many wildfires recently, fuels that grew over the growing season are rapidly curing.
"If dry conditions continue, we expect to see a rise in the number of wildfires, especially on days when high winds coincide with low relative humidity," S.C. Forestry Commission Forest Protection Chief Darryl Jones said.
"A developing drought could also result in poor seedling survival as we enter tree-planting season."

“This year, I rented three pieces of land and I paid 5 million dinars ($4,300)—and so far, I’ve only made 1 million back.” Osman’s is a common sort of story in Iraqi Kurdistan, where farmers face a dizzying array of problems, from drought and polluted water supplies, to ruthless urban expansion and an influx of cheap imports.
“We get zero support,” one Kurdish farmer says as he unloads tomatoes.
The agricultural sector’s decline has become a key vulnerability for the region of about 6 million people as Kurdish leaders plot a path from autonomy to independence.
Turkey and Iran are key suppliers, and both oppose the region’s secession because they fear it will embolden their own Kurdish minorities.
That’s an overstatement given that the region is still self-sufficient in key crops such as wheat.
In addition to imports, Iraq’s Kurdish farmers must also contend with climate change-induced drought and rising soil salinity caused by outdated irrigation methods.
A study published this year by Sweden’s Lund University found that croplands have become steadily less fertile in the region’s Dohuk province over the past decade.
In an interview on Oct. 17, as Iraqi forces embarked on a successful operation to retake control of the oil-rich province, the Kurdish government’s agriculture minister, Abdul Sattar Majid, said recent events had driven home the importance of supporting the region’s farmers.
“As we see now, oil can be cut off and its prices can decrease.” Majid noted that his ministry’s budget for farm programs has been shrinking gradually from an already-low base of 65 billion Iraqi dinars ($55 million) in 2014 to just 17 billion dinars last year.
Such complacency, he says, left the region too poor to effectively press for secession: “Everyone would like to have independence, but not an independence that makes you starve to death.”

"It’s going to take a slow, three day soaking rain to get back to normal."
Giachelli says the driest part of the state right now is in Holmes County.
With the wind, we’re going to have big fires," said Giachelli.
"Over 10 mile per hour winds, just burn it another day."
"Make sure you have dirt around it.
Watch where your sparks are going.
Watch until that fire is out.
"We’re not saying don’t burn, just be careful when you burn."
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While no major drought impacts were reported, some members of the committee expressed concern about the potential for dry conditions due to La Nina, according to a press release from the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, or SCDNR.
While wildfire occurrence has been low so far this month, fuels that grew over the growing season are rapidly curing, the press release stated.
"If dry conditions continue, we expect to see a rise in the number of wildfires, especially on days when high winds coincide with low relative humidity," S.C. Forestry Commission Forest Protection Chief Darryl Jones said.
"A developing drought could also result in poor seedling survival as we enter tree planting season."
The drought status for Edgefield, Saluda and Barnwell counties also was classified "incipient," but their statuses weren’t upgraded.
"The improved stream-flow conditions supported the removal of an incipient drought status for these two counties.
In the Pee Dee Basin, below-normal stream-flow levels supported the upgrade in drought status to incipient for the counties of Chesterfield, Darlington, Marlboro, Dillon and Marion."
The committee will continue to monitor the weather and will meet again as needed.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, which was issued Nov. 21, classified almost all of Aiken County and eastern Edgefield County as abnormally dry.
The northern part of Saluda County was abnormally dry, but there was a moderate drought in the rest of the county.

“These leaves are used to treat stomach aches,” Nzarayebani says with a smile.
“You either boil the leaves, then drink the water, or you can chew the leaves raw and swallow the juice.
These leaves are good for treating any kind of stomach upset.” But such medicinal plants are growing rarer in Zimbabwe these days.
But one of the most serious problems appears to be the country’s lengthening droughts, associated with climate change.
But those plants are disappearing.
He said he still held out hope that some would return if rains remain good.
“We are worried that our source of medicines is fast disappearing,” Mutasa told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“I used to get a plant known locally as mutsombori to treat various sicknesses at the wetland nearby but due to the droughts experienced in the past years the wetland is gone and the plants are gone too.” He said prolonged droughts appear to have killed even the underground tubers or bulbs that had once helped plants regenerate once rains returned.
“The plants are disappearing, both fruit and herbal medicines, but we cannot do anything.
Lawrence Nyagwande, a plant expert with Environment Africa, an environmental organization based in Zimbabwe, said there was little doubt that droughts linked to strengthening climate change were a big contributor to the loss of Zimbabwe’s medicinal plants.