Historically, Delaware isn’t like New England, Western New York, Minnesota, or Wisconsin when it comes to snow, but over the last five years, Delaware’s snowfall totals have dropped dramatically.
This winter – December, January, and February – Northern Delaware saw less than .5 an inch of snow, and that part of the state averages 20 inches of snow.
The southern part of the state along the coast usually gets 10-to-12 inches.
And over the last two years, it’s had approximately half the amount normally expected.
Delaware hasn’t hit average or above average snow totals since 2018-2019, and in that time Delaware state climatologist Dan Leathers says the state has missed out on lots of snow.
"We should have had a little bit over 100 inches of snow in those past 5 years. We've had something more like less than 50. So we've really missed out the last 5 years on about half the snow that we would normally expect," said Leathers.
Leathers notes the amount of snowfall in Delaware has always varied, for example in the 2009-2010 winter there was six feet of snow, while in the 1997-1998 winter, there was only a trace amount of snow.
With Delaware being along the coast and a peninsula, there is enough moisture to produce snow according to Leathers.
He says the problem is the temperatures in recent years.
"Winter in this case would be December, January, and February. It's the 5th warmest we've had since 1895, which says a lot. That's a pretty darn warm winter that we've had, and two of the months during the winter that are prime snowfall months - January and February - in each case they were the third warmest winter since 1895," said Leathers.
Leathers notes there are days when it’s plenty cold enough for snow, but there’s no moisture those days. On the flip side, when there’s been moisture, it’s too warm for snow, sometimes that could be a 1-to-2 degrees difference.
