Winter Weather — Inland Sussex, Delaware

2026-01-25 · Inland Sussex, Delaware

Event narrative

Storm total snow and sleet accumulation totals mainly ranged from 2-4, though an area of 5-6 amounts were reported in the far northwestern portion of the county near places like Bridgeville and Greenwood. The highest report received was 6.0 about 3 miles west of Bridgeville.

Wider weather episode

A powerful and expansive storm system brought widespread heavy wintry precipitation across nearly two thirds of the width of North America, stretching from the southern Rockies and southern Plains, across portions of the Midwest, Deep South, and Southeast, into the Mid-Atlantic and New England. For the Mid-Atlantic region, this was an overrunning precipitation event, with a very cold and dry, arctic airmass in place ahead of the storm. The main low pressure center passed offshore just to the south of the forecast area.

Precipitation began as all snow across the local region during the very early morning hours of January 25th. A transition to sleet occurred from south to north after dawn through midday. Some freezing rain occurred across the coastal plain of New Jersey and Delmarva during the afternoon and evening hours. Temperatures warmed above freezing across far southern New Jersey and southern Delaware where the marine front moved inland, resulting in a period of rain before precipitation ended. The marine front remained south and east of the I-95 to I-195 corridors. North of the front (along and north of the I-95 to I-195 corridors, including much of the Philadelphia metropolitan area, central and northern Delmarva) into the I-78 corridor, temperatures remained in the 10s when snow changed to sleet. Total sleet accumulations between 1-3 were reported in this region, on top of approximately 1-6 of snow.

The snow and sleet proved very challenging to remove following the storm due to the weight and density of the ice-capped snowpack and below freezing temperatures. At least 3 fatalities related to snow removal occurred in the Lehigh Valley. Snow removal took a few days in some places. Untreated or unplowed pavement remained covered in snow and/or ice for one to two weeks following the storm.

A 17 day period of largely well below freezing temperatures began the day before this storm on January 24th and continued through February 9th. This was one of the coldest 17 day periods in several decades for much of the region at the time. Mean temperatures in the period ranged from the mid 10s to low 20s. The extreme cold preserved the ice-capped, glacier-like snowpack for approximately 3 to 4 weeks following the storm. The snowpack remained across the entire region until about the third week of February, before melting away completely in most areas due to light rainfall and low temperatures remaining above freezing for a few days.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1310031. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.