An unusually warm winter with low snowfall totals this year means many children haven’t had the chance to get out and build a snowman.
There is no such thing as a typical winter in Delaware and Associate State Climatologist Kevin Brinson said winters in the First State normally produce varying snow totals.
“This winter has been pretty dry overall,” Brinson said. “Particularly the last month - February - has been very dry, but the best way to describe it is ‘warm’.”
Data from the Delaware Environmental Observing System snow monitoring network shows the range of snow the state has seen. Up north, Claymont has received just 4.5 inches of snow to date this winter, while Selbyville, in Sussex County, tops the snowfall list with 10 inches. Last year, Selbyville received 12.6 inches and Claymont received almost 15 inches.
Also last year, the Wilmington-New Castle County Airport’s snow station measured 25 inches of snow. That’s more than four times the amount of snow measured there this year - a mere 6 inches.
“Last year was a near ‘normal’ snow season in terms of total snowfall, although most of that occurred in one event in late January,” Brinson said, in an email. “One large event in March (not unheard of) could take this winter from a ‘not so snowy one’ to a normal year very quickly.”
Over time, the trend is for New Castle County to see more of the white stuff, Brinson said, but it’s not unusual for Kent and Sussex County to occasionally get hit harder.
“If the right storm track comes along when we have enough cold air in place, the southern part of the state could get quite a bit of snow,” Brinson said. “We actually saw that last March - we had a good couple of snowstorms that affected the southern part of the state more than the northern part of the state.”
A warmer winter could spell dryer soil in the spring. But Brinson said there is plenty of water in the soil for plants to feed off of as they start to bloom in a few weeks.
Brinson said if Delaware does not see anymore snow for the remainder of the season, this will be the state’s least snowy winter since 2012-2013. During that winter, the state only measured 5.2 inches of snow at the Wilmington New Castle County Airport.
“Until mid-April gets here, snow is still a possibility in Delaware,” Brinson said.