Coastal Flood and Strong Wind in Delaware, November 7 to 9, 1997

A slow moving nor'easter caused strong winds, heavy rain, beach erosion and widespread, but minor, tidal flooding from mid-day on the 7th through the morning of the 9th. The low pressure system formed near Cape Hatteras on the morning of the 7th and moved slowly north as the surface low was captured by a closed low at higher levels of the atmosphere. On the morning of the 8th, it was located about 80 miles east of Wallops Island, Virginia and on the morning of the 9th, it was near Cape May City. That morning a second low pressure system was located near Cape Cod, Massachusetts and the two merged into one and was located just south of Nova Scotia by the morning of the 10th. The low came close enough to the Delaware Coast by the morning of the 9th to cause the onshore winds and consequently the tidal flooding to diminish as well as the heavy rain.The several tide cycle pounding cause beach erosion and raised tidal departures to around 3.5 feet above normal and around 2.5 feet above normal at times of high tide from mid-day on the 7th (Friday) through the afternoon on the 8th (Saturday). This caused widespread, but minor, tidal flooding from the mid-day high tide on the 7th through the afternoon on the 8th. The highest tide reported at Lewes was 7.1 feet above mean low water. Strong gusty winds buffeted the region from the morning of the 7th through the afternoon of the 8th. The strongest gusts were reported during the afternoon and evening of the 7th. Peak gusts were around 50 mph. Heavy rain came in two bursts, during the early morning on the 8th and again from the evening of the 8th into the early morning on the 9th. In spite of impressive storm totals, no serious flooding was reported as the heavy rain was not concentrated within a short period of time. Rain began during the evening of the 6th and was not completely over until the daylight hours on the 9th. Three day storm totals included 4.08 inches in Salisbury, MD, 3.74 inches in Dover, 3.71 inches in Bridgeville, 3.52 inches in Georgetown and 2.03 inches in Lewes.