Delaware is seeing higher temperatures and precipitation every year – and it’s happening faster than in other states.
The First State is about three degrees Fahrenheit warmer now than 1895, when records started. Temps are increasing across the board in every season, even with the storms Delaware experienced this winter.
University of Delaware professor emeritus and former state climatologist Daniel Leathers said precipitation is more interesting because the rise is only a pattern in autumn.
“And we're not quite sure why that is. One could argue that it might have something to do with tropical storm systems and how much precip they drop,” Leathers said.
Delaware is a couple inches wetter than it was in 1895, according to Leathers.
That affects many industries Delaware relies on, Leather said, including agriculture and tourism.
And that means it’s more challenging for Delaware’s farmers to get out into the fields, according to Gov. Matt Meyer’s deputy chief of staff for climate, food systems and planning Nikko Brady.
“But also in terms of just the tolerance of certain crops at certain periods of the growing season, are failing just because precipitation is happening at the wrong point,” Brady said.
Brady was also the former acting secretary and deputy secretary of the Delaware Department of Agriculture.
“During the fall months we're dealing with cold snaps, and so when you're having over-precipitated crops, and during the cold months, it's just a bad combination… You've missed that opportunity for crops to be able to propagate the way they need to,” Brady said.
She added autumn precipitation is impacting harvesting capacity and keeps farmers from getting out onto the fields.
Last autumn saw the lowest precipitation Delaware has had during the autumn season. Leathers said that shouldn’t be seen as the norm.
“Superimposed on that upward trend is always going to be huge variability, and so people have to remember that… the long term trend is what's really important,” Leathers said.
Wednesday’s annual Delaware Resilient and Sustainable Communities League Summit in Dover hosted these and other climate discussions.
