Blowout: Winds empty the Delaware
Delaware River reaches lowest level since after '93 blizzard.
For almost 20 consecutive hours, steady winds from the northwest howled at 25 to 30 m.p.h. Saturday night into Sunday afternoon, with 50-plus gusts thrown in.
What resulted, according to the National Weather Service, was a blowout tide that left the Delaware River at its lowest level in 22 years.
Late Sunday in Philadelphia it fell to 3.4 feet below what is technically called "the mean lower low water level" – which the government defines as "the average of the lower low water height of each tidal day."
Technicalities aside, suffice it to say that's low.
The river hadn't reached that level since March 15, 1993, after the region was pounded by backlash northwesterly winds from the blizzard.
Gales from the northwest can blow out water from the Delaware Bay, setting up a chain reaction affecting the river, said Dean Iovino, meteorologist at the weather service office in Mount Holly.
While low water levels can be a problem for ships, "We haven't heard of any significant problems," he said.
And thousands of residents along the river would agree that low water beats flooding.