Drought in Delaware, December 14 to 31, 1998

The run of unseasonably dry weather that began in July started to take its toll on water supplies throughout the Middle Atlantic States. As December continued to be unseasonably dry, even drier than the previous months in the headwater region, reservoir levels continued to fall. On December 14th, the Delaware River Basin Commission declared a drought warning for the 7.3 million people within its 13,539 square mile basin in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The Commission asked people to voluntarily cut back water usage by 15 percent. The Commission also cut back by 15 percent the amount of water New York City and New Jersey could remove from the upstream reservoirs and the river itself. On December 23rd, the Delaware River Basin Commission declared Stage Two of its drought warning. Water diversions by New York City and New Jersey were cut back an additional 15 percent in an effort to stretch existing supplies. The drought's effects were not limited to the main stem of the Delaware River. The city of Newark could not use the White Clay Creek as its water source since August 6th. The streamflow since that day has been below fourteen million gallons per day. Stream levels along the Red Clay Creek and the Nanticoke River had fallen to a 54-year-low for the time of the year on December 11th. The flow along the Brandywine Creek and Saint Jones River were also near record low levels. Groundwater levels were below normal. As dry as July through November were, December was even drier in the northern part of the state. On a county weighted average, monthly precipitation was 94 percent of normal in Sussex County, but only 34 percent of normal in New Castle County. The precipitation total of 1.02 inches at the New Castle County Airport was the 5th driest December of this century.