Delaware Climate Information Center

As part of a cooperative effort between the Office of the Delaware State Climatologist, the Delaware Geological Survey and several State Agencies to better monitor the State’s changing environment, an analysis was conducted on the historical climate and related environmental data for Delaware and the Delaware Bay Estuary for the period 1895 through 2011. The major goal of the research was to identify any statistically significant trends in diverse climate variables for the Delaware Region. The variables of interest included precipitation and precipitation extremes (both rainfall and snowfall), temperature, temperature extremes, drought indices (PDSI, PDHI and Palmer-Z), flood frequency, flood magnitude, and the frequency and magnitude of coastal storms (mid-latitude and tropical systems) and severe weather events (severe convective winds, hail, tornadoes). In addition, several “non-traditional” data sets were investigated for their efficacy in informing the question of climate change in the Delaware Region including historic photography, personal journals and diaries, previous refereed literature, etc. Also included in the analysis was a thorough study of changing land surface conditions across the State (amount of impervious surfaces, development, deforestation, etc.) and their potential effect on the climate variables.