Drought, Delaware Beaches
- When
- April 1, 12:00 AM EST to 11:59 PM EST
- Where
- Delaware Beaches forecast zone
- Reported by
- GOVT OFFICIAL
- Coordinates
- 38.683, -75.339 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
3 inches) Counties. 5 inches.
Every event with a place to put it; 4 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS PHI wrote it up.
April monthly precipitation across Delaware was near normal in New Castle County (3.2 inches on a county weighted average) and wetter than normal across Kent (4.9 inches) and Sussex (4.3 inches) Counties. Normal is around 3.5 inches. Monthly precipitation totals at the New Castle County Airport was 2.26 inches and in Georgetown(Sussex County) was 3.02 inches. The effects of the dry weather leading into March and April were still evident. On April 1st, every monitored stream in Delaware had below normal flow. Flow along the Brandywine Creek was only one fourth of normal. The Brandywine Creek was setting record daily record low flows through April 15th. Since November 1st, the Brandywine Creek had set 76 daily record low flows for the date. On April 1st, every monitored groundwater well in Delaware and Maryland was below normal, eight were at record lows for the date. The relatively dry conditions led to a dozen small brush fires in New Castle County on April 7th alone. The improving rainfall kept Governor Ruth Ann Minner from upgrading the drought warning to a drought emergency. The governor asked residents to voluntarily conserve water by restricting all non-essential uses such as washing cars and using wise water habits such as running the dishwasher and clothes washer with full loads. But, a few hundreds implemented mandatory water restrictions. In Smyrna (Kent County), car washing, lawn sprinkling, tree watering, vegetation watering and any other unnecessary uses of water were to be banned effective May 1st. Also as of May 1st in Galena (Kent County) washing pavements, filling or topping off private pools, serving water without asking at restaurants, running ornamental fountains without a recycling system were banned. Lawn watering was restricted to odd and even days. The recent rains improved the groundwater to adequate levels in the southern part of the state and short term farming conditions were improving by the day. The Delaware River Basin Commission continued its drought emergency for the entire Delaware River drainage basin.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Philadelphia/Mount Holly wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 31, 9:50 PM EST, 2 hours 10 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ 950 PM EST SUN MAR 31 2002 *********************************UPDATE***************************** HAVE HOISTED SML CRFT ADVSRY ACRS ALL CSTL AREAS AND ALL OF DEL BAY. FEW OTHR CHGS ATTM. -JWH- ********************************************************************* PCPN IN ADVANCE OF SECOND SHORT WAVE HAS SLOWLY BEEN WORKING TOWARD/INTO FORECAST AREA. TODAY HAS BEEN A LTL SPOTTIER THAN EXPECTED...BUT AS ETA AND AVN ARE QUITE SIMILAR WITH THIS SYSTEM WILL CONT THE FORECAST FOR RA TONIGHT. GOOD PWATER VALUES FOR SERN PORTION OF AREA...WITH VALUES AROUND 1.25 IN. H8 DEWPOINTS IN THE SERN FA EXCEED 5 DEG C AND APPROACH 10 DEG C FAR S. DECENT DYNAMICS AS THE MID LVL TROF STARTS TO TILT NEGATIVE AND THE LOW LEVEL LOW IS IN A FAVORED AREA REGARDING UPPER JETS. SOME BUOYANCY SNEAKS INTO SRN FA OVERNIGHT. SO FAR...LIGHTNING HAS MADE IT UP TO THE NC/VA BORDER. KEPT THE MENTION OF HEAVY RAIN POSSIBLE FOR THE SERN HALF OF FA...BASICALLY ALONG AND S OF THE H8 LOW PATH...AND PUT IN THE PSBLTY OF THUNDER FOR THE FAR SRN ZONES. WITH THE SFC FRONT TO THE S AND THE WEAK ERLY FLOW OVER ALL OF AREA DONT THINK THE THUNDER...IF IT OCCURS...WILL AMOUNT TO ANYTHING SEVERE. WITH THE NEG TILT MID LVL TROF EXITING TOMORROW...BRISK/BREEZY/WINDY CONDITIONS ARE IN THE FCST. THE IMPULSE PUSHES THROUGH NRN ZONES AND HAVE KEPT THE PSBLTY OF AM SHOWERS THERE. OTHERWISE A CATABATIC KIND OF DAY. AVN AND ETA THEN START TO DIVERGE WITH THE MID LVL TROF OVER SERN CANADA AND THE ASSOCIATED SFC FEATURE...WITH THE CANADIAN MODEL FAVORING THE AVN. THEY HAVE A DEEPER MID LVL CIRCULATION...AND THE LOW LEVEL FEATURE IS DEEPER AND SLOWER THAN THE ETA. HAVE WENT THIS WAY...SO ALTHOUGH BRING IN SOME CLOUDS...KEEP THE PCPN OUT THROUGH TUE. DIDNT FINESSE TEMPS TOO MUCH. WITH THE CATABATIC FLOW TOMORROW GENERALLY STAYED ON THE HIGHER SIDE OF STAT GUIDANCE. CAA IS THERE...BUT NOT VERY STRONG AFTER AN INITIAL SHOT. ALTHOUGH FCSTING SOME CLOUDS TMRW NITE THEY SHOULD BE HIGH CLOUDS...AND WINDS SHOULD DIMINISH...SO WENT A TAD COOLER IN THE RADIATING ZONES. ON TUE... WITH A DECENT SWLY FLOW AGAIN BOUGHT OFF ON THE HIGHER SIDE OF GUIDANCE. MARINE FCSTR CONCERNED ABOUT MINOR TIDAL FLOODING...MAINLY BECAUSE OF HIGH ASTRONOMICAL TIDES TONIGHT. ZONES ARE HEADLINED FOR THE PSBLTY. ALSO...WITH THE WINDS PICKING UP AS THE TROF TILTS AND THE SFC FEATURE WINDS UP OFF OUR COAST...SCA CONDS EXPECTED EITHER TOWARD DAYBREAK OR JUST AFTER. FCSTID = 45 MPO 35 49 29 53 / 100 30 20 20 ABE 40 54 32 59 / 100 30 20 20 RDG 40 55 32 60 / 100 30 20 20 PHL 43 57 39 63 / 100 20 10 20 12N 39 52 29 57 / 100 30 20 20 SMQ 41 56 31 61 / 100 20 10 20 TTN 41 56 33 61 / 100 20 10 20 MIV 44 59 32 64 / 100 20 0 10 ACY 45 59 44 56 / 100 20 0 10 ILG 43 57 35 63 / 100 20 10 20 DOV 45 59 36 64 / 100 20 0 10 GED 45 59 36 64 / 100 20 0 10 ESN 45 59 36 64 / 100 20 0 10 .PHI... DE...NONE. MD...NONE. NJ...NONE. PA...NONE. MARINE...SML CRFT ADVSRY CST AND BAY ANZ450>455-430-431. MPD
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
4 drought. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Delaware in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Delaware, April 2002
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5292627, 5292628, 5292629, 5292630.