Drought in Delaware, July 1, 2002

Name: Drought in Delaware, July 1, 2002
Start: 2002-07-01T00:00
End: 2002-07-01T23:59
Location: Delaware

July 1, 2002 · NWS PHI · 4 events in 4 counties and zones

The combination of an unseasonably warm July and below normal monthly precipitation intensified the drought across Delaware. 8 inches in New Castle County.

Where it happened

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.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 4

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.

What happened

The episode as NWS PHI wrote it up.

The combination of an unseasonably warm July and below normal monthly precipitation intensified the drought across Delaware. On a county weighted average July monthly precipitation was 2.3 inches in Sussex County, 3.3 inches in Kent County and 1.8 inches in New Castle County. Normal is around 3.9 inches. Monthly precipitation totals at the New Castle County Airport was 1.40 inches and in Georgetown (Sussex County) was 2.14 inches. The drought warning remained in effect for the state. Governor Ruth Ann Minner continued to ask 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. On July 18th the State Drought Advisory Committee urged residents and businesses to voluntarily cut water usage by 10 percent to stave off restrictions, especially in the northern half of New Castle County. Demand for water dropped after this request. Nevertheless, without adequate precipitation low streamflow daily records were being set for the Brandywine and White Clay Creeks. Groundwater monitoring wells were all near or at record lows for the calendar day. Even streamflow in tidal sections of the Nanticoke River (Sussex County) were at their lowest levels since the 1950s. For emergency use, the Hoopes Reservoir in New Castle County was at capacity. The continued dry conditions forced Sussex County officials to ban all outdoor burning on the 19th. The unseasonably hot July combined with inadequate rainfall during the critical pollination phase devastated the state's corn crop. It was estimated that 75 percent of the corn crop has been hurt by the drought. Yields in Sussex County for unirrigated corn fields was expected to be 10 bushels per acre versus the normal yield of 120 bushels per acre. The National Agriculture Statistics Service report for Sussex County crops toward the end of the month indicated how much the drought has intensified. Forty-four percent of the county's corn crop was rated as very poor and only 36 percent was either in fair or good condition. Forty percent of the county's soybean crop was also in very poor condition with only 29 percent in fair or good condition. Eighty-two percent of all farmland was rated as being very short of moisture. Normal is only 9 percent. State officials were considering declaring the corn crop a disaster.The Delaware River Basin Commission continued its drought emergency declaration for the entire Delaware River drainage basin. The New York City Reservoirs which feed the Delaware River fell from 89.0 percent of capacity on July 1st to 77.1 percent of capacity on July 31st.

What forecasters said that day

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 Jun 30, 1:35 PM EST, 10 hours 25 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 30, 1:35 PM EST, 10 hours 25 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
235 PM EDT SUN JUN 30 2002

MDLS DID NOT INIT HI RDG WELL AT 12Z. IT APRS TO BE ALG THE WI/IL
BDR VS STL BASED ON THE 12Z UA. THIS DOES NOT BODE WELL FOR THEIR
SHRTWV FCSTS MON/TUE AND THE INCLUSION/EXCLUSION OF ANY THUNDER.
OTRWISE THE AVN IN THE SHORT TERM SEEMS OK THRU TUE AS A COMP MDL
BETWEEN THE HOTTER NGM AND COOLER ETA. ITS LO LVL TEMP FIELDS SEEMED
TO HAVE INIT BETTER THAN THE ETA (TOO COOL). NEVERTHELESS FCSTD HEAT
INDICES APR THEY WILL REACH 100-105 ON TUE AND PSBLY WED AND WE WILL
BE ISSUING AN EXCESSIVE HEAT OUTLOOK STATEMENT WITH THIS PKG. OF
LATE THE MDLS SEEM TO BE PRETTY GENEROUS WITH THEIR MEAN RH FCSTS.
ONE WOULD THINK IT WOULD BE CLOUDIER. THUS ETA MOS MAY BE BIASED BY
THIS FOR WED. ON THE OTHER HAND WOULD BLV SOME OF THE SUN/S ENERGY
WOULD BE GOING TOWARD EVAP NEXT FEW DAYS AS JUNE (ESP THE 2ND HALF)
WAS WETTER THAN NML. LONGER RNG MDLS CONT TO AGREE TO DISAGREE. THE
ECMWF WOULD KEEP US BAKED...THE AVN/MRF WOULD MAKE IT A DELIGHTFUL
WEEKEND...ESP IN NEW ENG. THE TRUTH IS PBLY SOMEWHERE BTWN...MAYBE A
REPEAT OF THIS PAST WEEKEND.

SOME TCU HAVE BEEN DVLPG ACRS OUR NRN ZNS TAFTN. FCSTD CAP IS
WEAKEST THERE AND WE WILL SEE IF WE WILL HAVE TO INCLD SOME LOW CHC
ERLY IF CVRG WARRANTS. OTRWISE FOG BANK S OF LONG IS HAS NOT MADE
MUCH WWD PROG DURG THE DAYLIGHT HRS. LLVL WIND FIELD FCST WILL BE
FROM THE E-SE FOR A BIT THIS EVE B4 THE SWRLYS ARE SUPPOSE TO TAKE
OVR. CUR PLANS ARE NOT TO PUT SOME PATCHY FOG IN OUR MARINE OR HAZE
PUBLIC ZONES. GUID MIN TEMPS ARE CLOSE FOR TNGT AND LOOK RSNBL GIVEN
CUR DEWPTS.

ON MON WE WILL BE EXPANDING THE MNTN OF TSRA A BIT FTHR TO THE S IN
NJ. ETA/S FCSTD INSTAB IS NOW GREATER ON MON THAN TUE AND ALSO MORE
PREVALENT ACRS OUR SERN ZNS. THIS DOES NOT APPEAR LOGICAL GIVEN THE
GENERAL TREND OF HOTTER LWR ATMOS AIR STREAMING ACRS NWRN ZNS. IF
ANYTHING THE CUR CAP IS STGR S THAN N AND A SWD DRIFT OF THIS FEAT
WOULD PUT OUR NRN ZNS AT MOST RISK. LO CONFID ABT SHRT WV POSN BUT
SINCE WE ARE GOING WITH THE AVN...THIS WOULD INCR THE CHC MORE IN
NJ THAN PA. ETA NOW PAINTING CNSDRBLY MORE DRY AIR AT MID LVLS THAN
IT DID YDA. ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE CASES WHERE THE CHC OF AN AFTN TSRA
IS RATHER LOW...BUT IF ONE FORMS WE COULD GET ONE OR TWO SVR
PULSERS. AVN FULL SUN MAXT MACRO FOR PHL IS 89. THIS APRS LOW GIVEN
ITS OWN INCR IN FCSTD H10-H8.5 THICK. ETA/NGM MOS LOOK BETTER. ALL
THE MDLS HAVE SIMMERED THE TD/S DOWN A TAD. THIS SEEMS OK GIVEN THE
SWRLY WINDS TMRW ARE NOT THAT IMPRESSIVE AND LO-MID 60S DEWPTS ARE
AS FAR S AS NC. STILL MORE HUMID THAN TDY WITH AFTN HEAT INDICES IN
THE 90S MOST ZONES.

WILL REMOVE ANY MNTN OF PCPN FOR MON NGT AND CONFINE IT TO ONE
PERIOD. TSRA S/B DIURNALLY DRIVEN. GUID MIN TEMPS ARE CLSLY
CLUSTERED AND WILL USE. THE COMBO OF BOTH HEAT AND HUMIDITY SHLD
INCR FOR TUE AS SOME OF THAT HOT AIR RISING NEWD FROM INL STARTS TO
GET SHUNTED EWD AND DROP S ACRS THE NRN PART OF OUR CWA. DEWPTS ARE
PRETTY HI INTO THE WRN GRTLKS AND THIS TOO HAS TO PASS THRU US.
WOULD SUSPECT TD/S MAY BE A BIT HIGH ON TUE...BUT WOULD NOT THINK
WE/D GET ANOTHER DAY OF TD/S IN THE 60S CWAWIDE. DUE TO THE RECENT
MOIST CONDS NGM MOS MAX TEMPS WILL NOT BE USED. ETA/AVN FULL SUN
MACROS GIVE US LO-MID 90S WHICH SEEM SO-CALLED BETTER. THIS COMBO
WOULD GIVE US AFTN HEAT INDICES BTWN 100-105. SINCE THERE ARE DIF
TRIGGERS (SUBURBAN/OUTLYING 105 VS 100 FOR URBAN) FOR ISSUING
EXCESSIVE HEAT ADVY/WRNGS AND AFT COORD WITH LWX WE HAVE OPTED TO
ISSUE AN EXCESSIVE HEAT OUTLOOK STATEMENT FOR NOW AND LET LATER
SHIFTS FINE TUNE GEO EXTENT. LO CONFID FOR MAX TEMPS ALG THE CST ON
TUE. ETA HINTING AT A MORE WRLY FLOW WHICH MIGHT KEEP SEABREEZE OUT.
FOR NOW WE ARE HINTING AT A BIT OF A SEABREEZE VIA THE AVN. AS FAR
AS THUNDER IS CONCERNED THE ETA WAS LESS UNSTABLE TUE THAN MON. THE
AVN WAS MORE SO AND A BIT MORE LOGICAL AGN (NW ZONES). WE WILL KEEP
A CHC OF AN AFTN TSRA IN MOST ZONES. AGAIN THE ETA IS SUGG IT WOULD
BCM TOO MOIST FOR PULSERS TUE.

WE/LL BE A BIT MORE CONSER WITH THE CFP/DRYING OUT THAN THE AVN HAS
TO OFFER MAKING WED ANOTHER HOT/HUMID DAY.

MARINE: NO PBLMS. CAPE MAY/LEWES FERRY HAD FLAT SEAS THIS MRNG AND
AFTN

TU FOR COORD LWX.

.PHI...
DE...NONE.
MD...NONE.
NJ...NONE.
PA...NONE.
MARINE...NONE.

TFG

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

4 drought. Local standard time, as filed.

Drought, Delaware Beaches

When: July 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)

Drought, Inland Sussex

When: July 1, 12:00 AM EST to 11:59 PM EST
Where: Inland Sussex forecast zone
Reported by: GOVT OFFICIAL
Coordinates: 38.683, -75.339 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Kent

When: July 1, 12:00 AM EST to 11:59 PM EST
Where: Kent forecast zone
Reported by: GOVT OFFICIAL
Coordinates: 39.096, -75.505 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, New Castle

When: July 1, 12:00 AM EST to 11:59 PM EST
Where: New Castle forecast zone
Reported by: GOVT OFFICIAL
Coordinates: 39.578, -75.639 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Drought: A drought reaching severe (D2) or worse on the US Drought Monitor, or with notable impacts.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Delaware in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Delaware, July 2002

Sources

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: 5308874, 5308875, 5308876, 5308877.