Winter Storm and Sleet in Delaware, January 30, 2000

A low pressure system developed in the western Gulf of Mexico during the day on the 28th. It slowly moved eastnortheast and by Sunday morning the 30th was located near Apalachicola, Florida, not too far from the location of the January 25th storm. Unlike the previous storm, this one tracked farther to the west and moved northeast along the Atlantic Seaboard. By the morning of the 31st, it was located near Boston, Massachusetts. There was less cold air present at the start of the storm, especially along the coastal plain. Most of it was in the lowest layers of the atmosphere. During the afternoon precipitation started as snow in New Castle County, briefly as snow in Kent County and as plain rain farther south. Around two inches of snow accumulated in New Castle County before precipitation changed to freezing rain and sleet around 6 p.m. EST. Warm air was moving in from the nearby Atlantic and changed the freezing rain to plain rain.This occurred the fastest on the bayside of Kent County and the slowest in northwest New Castle County. By 10 p.m. EST all precipitation had changed to plain rain. By then around one-third of an inch of ice accrued on exposed surfaces in New Castle County. Untreated roadways were very treacherous and high traffic volume due to Super Bowl Sunday exacerbated the problems. In New Castle County, about a dozen accidents occurred on Interstates 95 and 495, half of them betwen 430 pm. EST and 515 p.m. EST. Several vehicles in the county were stranded because of the icy roads. Accumulations included 2.5 inches in Hockessin, 2.1 inches in Newark and 2 inches in Wilmington.