Winter storm more trouble than I expected
There was nothing about this in the brochures.
That thought went through my mind as I shoveled a waist-deep snowdrift from the back steps of our house Feb. 23, so Bode the dog could reach the backyard.
From what little I knew of Delaware before I moved here 16 months ago, it is famous for its sunny beaches.
But not in February.
I had read that Lewes typically gets about 11 inches of snow on average in the winter while high temperatures hover around the freezing mark. I can live with that, I thought.
But that’s not what we’ve been getting since we moved from upstate New York. Delaware has been colder and, at times, snowier than advertised during our two winters here.
Living in Central New York, we were accustomed to several storms during a winter that dropped more than 2 feet of snow, and on rare occasions more than 3 feet. It could snow daily for weeks on end.
Cortland, where I had lived for more than 25 years, typically gets about 80 inches of annual snowfall. Heavy winter snow storms were the norm, and the roads would be cleared within a day.
Less than 100 miles to the north of Cortland is the Tug Hill Plateau, where towns usually exceed 300 inches of snow in a season, and the town of Hooker set the state record of 467 inches in the winter of 1976-77.
I thought those winter storms were all behind us when we moved. After I woke up on the morning of Feb. 23, I was not ready for what I found.
When more than a foot of snow fell in Lewes in January 2025, many people said that was unusual. This recent storm was much worse.
Three evergreen bushes in the yard were bent at the top, looking like tall white candy canes. I had to wade out to knock the clumps of snow off the shrubs to give them a chance at survival.
I cleared the driveway twice during the storm. The first time included the slush formed when the first of the snowfall landed in the heavy rain that preceded it. Then there was a second pass a couple of hours later.
I planned to shovel a third time before I went to bed, but the winds were already picking up and it would have been a waste of time to do it then. So I waited for morning, when I found a scene that was very familiar in Cortland.
One thing I am quickly learning about Delaware is, the important thing is not how much snow falls. It is where it lands. And Delaware snow often lands more than once.
The wind seems to always be a huge factor, and much of the snow is blown around before and after it hits the ground. Snow does not evenly coat the ground. In some parts of our yard this week the snow was only a few inches deep, while howling winds had created drifts well above my waist in the backyard and along one side of the house.
And that blowing snow would be wreaking havoc for days to come as drifts would block roads and leave us temporarily stranded with a driving ban in place.
But a warming trend was in the forecast starting this week, and hopefully this storm will soon become a distant memory and we can start looking forward to those warm, sunny beach days again. The ones from the brochures.
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Working It Out is the reincarnation of a column by the same name that reporter Kevin Conlon wrote weekly for more than six years for the Cortland Standard newspaper, where he worked as city editor before joining the Cape Gazette staff. The Syracuse Press Club, which covers 21 counties in Central New York, in May gave Conlon The Robert Haggart Award for best column of 2024.
Kevin Conlon came to the Cape Gazette with nearly 40 years of newspaper experience since graduating from St. Bonaventure University in New York with a bachelor's degree in mass communication. He reports on Sussex County government and other assignments as needed.
His career spans working as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers in upstate New York, including The Daily Gazette in Schenectady. He comes to the Cape Gazette from the Cortland Standard, where he was an editor for more than 25 years, and in recent years also contributed as a columnist and opinion page writer. He and his staff won regional and state writing awards.
Conlon was relocating to Lewes when he came across an advertisement for a reporter job at the Cape Gazette, and the decision to pursue it paid off. His new position gives him an opportunity to stay in a career that he loves, covering local news for an independently owned newspaper.
Conlon is the father of seven children and grandfather to two young boys. In his spare time, he trains for and competes in triathlons and other races. Now settling into the Cape Region, he is searching out hilly trails and roads with wide shoulders. He is a fan of St. Bonaventure sports, especially rugby and basketball, as well as following the Mets, Steelers and Celtics.
