Snow depth measurement from 2010 now a record

WILMINGTON, DEL. >> It took over a decade for a massive East Coast winter storm to set the new snow depth record for Delaware, as declared by a federal weather agency.

The National Center for Environmental Information announced in February that the state’s record is now officially 28 inches , recorded in February 2010 in Greenwood during what was known as the “Snowmageddon” storm, The News Journal of Wilmington reported.

The total exceeds 25inch depth totals recorded in the state in both February 1979 and February 2003.

Snow depth determines the depth of new and old snow remaining on the ground at observation time, according to the National Weather Service.

The new record took shape last year when an NWS observation program leader emailed Delaware’s state climatologist. The data, collected by a volunteer at the Greenwood site, had never been presented to a panel that examines potential records.

That panel, the State Climate Extremes Committee, voted unanimously last May to accept the new record. The decision wasn’t released through a report until a couple of weeks ago by the center, an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.