Delaware braces for the snow; schools close

The only question tonight is which would fill up faster: snow on Delaware roadways or school closings on the Delaware School closing website.

DelDot road cameras told a story of heavy snows that piled up through the night.  The evening commute went off earlier than usual.  By 7pm roads like DuPont Highway were still passable, but not plowed.  Most drivers who remained on the road followed the tire tread of the car that had traveled ahead of them. 

The National Weather Service forecast still called for a winter storm warning to remain in effect until 4am.  Total accumulation could be between 5 and 9 inches.  Many schools announced they were closed by late afternoon.  The city of Wilmington has said city offices won’t open until 10am. 

The morning rush hour Wednesday should have tipped many off.  It snowed longer and heavier than most forecaster had predicted. Most roads were slow and slushy.  The further north you went the harder it was to get around until the first round of snow clear the area before noon.

To the south of Dover the early part of the day was mostly a rain event.  “Sussex County has been fortunate that the temperature today has been above freezing, so we haven’t seen any real issues to this point,” Sussex County Emergency Operations Center Director Joseph L. Thomas said. “

All of the snow storms in January did get the First show team thinking about the 10 biggest snow storms in Delaware history.  This isn’t one of them.