Delaware Climate Information Center

As part of a cooperative effort between the University of Delaware and several Delaware State Agencies to better monitor conditions along the Delaware coastline and to provide advance warning of impending coastal flooding events, a climatology of coastal storms and coastal storm damage along the Delaware coast for the period 1871 through 2009 was completed. A major thrust of this project has been to determine areas of the State most susceptible to damage from coastal storms and the type and magnitude of damage associated with these events. Significant coastal storms were identified using diverse meteorological data, storm reports, newspaper accounts, and other weather related archives. Characteristics of the storms identified in this project include storm provenance (place of origin and path), meteorological distinctives associated with the storm (wind speed, wind direction, precipitation type and amount, temperature, etc.), and ocean characteristics during the event (tide levels, wave heights, wave periods, wave energies, etc.). In addition, damages associated with each storm were presented with as fine a spatial resolution as possible (i.e. statewide, county, municipality, etc.).