Winter Weather — New Castle, Delaware

2012-01-21 · New Castle, Delaware

Wider weather episode

A low pressure system that passed south of Delaware during the morning of the 21st brought a wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain to the state. Snowfall in New Castle County averaged 1 to 3 inches and less than an inch in Kent and Sussex Counties. Ice accretions averaged around one tenth of an inch. Because this occurred on a Saturday, the overall number of accidents were lower. Most of the accidents, including the most serious ones, occurred in New Castle County. Delaware State Police responded to about three dozen accidents, about a dozen with injuries and about half a dozen disabled vehicles. A 52-year-old man was killed waiting at a bus stop on Philadelphia Pike in Brandywine Hundred. The driver of a Cutlass driving southbound on Philadelphia Pike lost control of his vehicle, started spinning and entered the northbound lanes, struck two trees and then the man. Two passengers in the vehicle were also injured and hospitalized. Interstate 495's traffic slowed to a crawl near Wilmington after a tractor-trailer jack-knifed.

Snow overspread Delaware between Midnight EST and 2 a.m. EST on the 21st. The snow changed to sleet and freezing rain from 2 a.m. EST in Sussex County northward to around 5 a.m. EST in New Castle County. The wintry mix persisted in New Castle County until the precipitation ended during the middle of the afternoon on the 21st. Precipitation became spottier in the county after 9 a.m. EST. In Kent and Sussex Counties, the sleet and freezing rain changed to plain rain between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. EST on the 21st and stayed mainly rain until it ended in the middle to late afternoon on the 21st.

Representative snowfall included 2.6 inches in New Castle (New Castle County), 2.4 inches at the New Castle County Airport, 2.3 inches in Newark (New Castle County), 1.5 inches in Glasgow (New Castle County) and 0.4 inches in Dover (Kent County).

The low pressure system responsible for the wintry mix formed on a cold front over the Southern Plains on the 20th. At 7 p.m. EST on the 20th, it reached Arkansas. It moved northeast and reached Kentucky at 1 a.m. EST on the 21st, the lower Chesapeake Bay at 7 a.m. EST on the 21st, just east of Cape May, New Jersey at 10 a.m. EST on the 21st and about 100 miles east of the New Jersey coast at 1 p.m. EST on the 21st. The track of the low pressure system made it difficult for warm air to move in at the surface in the northern part of the state, even if it warmed enough aloft to change the snow to either sleet or freezing rain.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 360218. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.