Wilmington, NC Snowfall Database since 1870

The National Weather Service maintains a complete climatological record of snowfall for Wilmington beginning in December, 1870. This is the most complete snowfall history for any station in Eastern North or South Carolina. With such a long period of data many interesting snowfall statistics can be generated for Wilmington.

Picture of a snowboard, used for official snowfall measurements Up until the Weather Bureau (the former name of the National Weather Service) moved its official weather observations to the Wilmington airport in 1951, snowfall measurements were taken by meteorologists from a variety of locations in downtown Wilmington including Water Street, Front Street, and Chestnut Street. Today the official Wilmington snowfall measurements are taken at the airport in a grassy field by the National Weather Service using a white-painted piece of plywood called a "snowboard" and a precise measuring stick marked in one-tenth inch increments, both pictured to the right.

The largest snowstorms in Wilmington's history were the Great Christmas Blizzard of 1989 that dropped 15.3 inches, a blizzard in February 1973 that dropped 12.5 inches, and large snowstorm in February 1896 measuring 12.1 inches. Dates and amounts of every measurable snow in Wilmington's history are available in the snowfall database section below.

Begin Date	Ending Date	Snowfall	Basic Snowfall Statistics for Wilmington, NC since 1870
12/23/1870	12/23/1870	2.4	Total Snowfall (inches)			241.0
3/22/1875	3/22/1875	1.0	Annual Mean Snowfall (in.)			1.6
11/20/1879	11/20/1879	1.5	Standard Deviation per event			2.8
12/30/1880	12/30/1880	0.1	Median Snowstorm Total (in.)			1.0
1/24/1881	1/24/1881	1.0	Mode (inches)			0.1
3/22/1883	3/22/1883	2.0
1/5/1884	1/5/1884	1.5	Total Snowfall by Decade (inches)
2/4/1886	2/4/1886	0.2	1870s: 4.9	1930s: 11.7				1990s: 3.9
2/28/1886	2/28/1886	1.6	1880s: 8.6	1940s: 17.0				2000s: 12.1
2/11/1889	2/11/1889	0.2	1890s: 23.3	1950s: 10.7				2010s: 14.0
2/21/1889	2/21/1889	2.0	1900s: 14.6	1960s: 18.2				2020s: 0.5
3/7/1890	3/7/1890	0.3	1910s: 33.7	1970s: 22.0
12/26/1892	12/28/1892	2.0	1920s: 10.4	1980s: 35.4
2/24/1894	2/25/1894	3.2
2/7/1895	2/8/1895	0.1
2/11/1895	2/13/1895	0.4
2/17/1896	2/18/1896	12.1	Earliest Measurable Snow: November 20, 1879
1/28/1899	1/29/1899	0.2	Latest Measurable Snow: March 31, 1915
2/11/1899	2/13/1899	5.0	Trace amounts have fallen as early as November 12, 2013; and as late as April 11, 1989
1/1/1900	1/1/1900	0.1
2/23/1901	2/26/1901	9.0	Measurable Snowfall Events Since 1870
12/17/1901	12/19/1901	0.3	Month		# of events
2/15/1902	2/17/1902	0.2	January		41			34% of all events
1/4/1904	1/5/1904	4.5	February		38			32% of all events
1/9/1906	1/9/1906	0.1	March		16			13% of all events
12/4/1907	12/5/1907	0.4	April		0			0 % of all events
1/13/1912	1/15/1912	8.6	November		3			3 % of all events
2/10/1912	2/11/1912	9.8	December		21			18% of all events
11/28/1912	11/28/1912	1.0
2/13/1914	2/13/1914	0.1
2/24/1914	2/25/1914	0.2	Snowstorm Historic Frequency Analysis
3/30/1915	3/31/1915	1.0	Snowstorm Amount		≥ 0.1"		≥ 1"	≥ 3"	≥ 6"	≥ 12"
12/20/1915	12/21/1915	7.5	# of events since 1870		119		59	29	12	3
12/29/1917	12/30/1917	4.2	Mean # of events per year		0.78		0.39	0.19	0.08	0.02
1/2/1918	1/2/1918	0.1	Mean return interval (years)		1.28		2.58	5.24	12.7	50.7
2/9/1919	2/10/1919	1.2
1/25/1922	1/25/1922	2.4
11/27/1922	11/28/1922	0.2
3/13/1926	3/13/1926	0.6
1/10/1927	1/11/1927	0.7
1/26/1927	1/27/1927	2.0
3/1/1927	3/2/1927	4.5
1/29/1930	1/30/1930	0.4
3/3/1931	3/4/1931	0.1
3/15/1934	3/15/1934	1.0
1/30/1936	1/30/1936	6.5
2/21/1936	2/22/1936	3.7
1/1/1940	1/2/1940	1.1
1/19/1940	1/19/1940	0.2
1/7/1942	1/9/1942	0.4
2/24/1942	2/25/1942	8.0
12/16/1942	12/16/1942	0.6
12/15/1943	12/15/1943	6.0
3/26/1947	3/26/1947	0.1
1/28/1948	2/1/1948	0.5
2/9/1948	2/10/1948	0.1
2/3/1951	2/3/1951	3.0
2/10/1951	2/10/1951	0.5
12/6/1954	12/6/1954	0.3
1/10/1956	1/10/1956	0.8
12/11/1957	12/11/1957	1.0
2/13/1958	2/13/1958	2.0
12/11/1958	12/14/1958	3.1
3/9/1960	3/12/1960	6.2
1/11/1962	1/12/1962	1.0
2/12/1962	2/12/1962	1.0
3/2/1962	3/3/1962	0.8
3/6/1962	3/7/1962	0.3
2/17/1963	2/17/1963	0.6
2/26/1963	2/27/1963	0.8
1/15/1965	1/17/1965	0.1
1/30/1965	1/31/1965	2.8
3/6/1965	3/6/1965	0.4
1/10/1968	1/12/1968	0.1
2/22/1968	2/24/1968	3.3
12/15/1968	12/15/1968	0.3
1/4/1969	1/4/1969	0.5
1/20/1970	1/20/1970	0.1
1/23/1970	1/23/1970	1.8
2/26/1970	2/26/1970	0.2
12/29/1970	12/29/1970	4.0
1/7/1973	1/10/1973	1.9
2/9/1973	2/11/1973	12.5
12/17/1973	12/17/1973	0.4
1/31/1977	1/31/1977	0.6
2/16/1977	2/16/1977	0.3
2/18/1979	2/18/1979	0.2
2/6/1980	2/6/1980	0.3
3/1/1980	3/3/1980	6.6
1/30/1981	1/30/1981	1.0
2/26/1982	2/26/1982	0.1
3/24/1983	3/25/1983	4.2
1/7/1988	1/8/1988	0.4
1/15/1988	1/15/1988	5.0
12/12/1988	12/13/1988	0.1
12/16/1988	12/16/1988	1.6
2/23/1989	2/24/1989	0.8
12/22/1989	12/24/1989	15.3
1/19/1992	1/19/1992	1.4
12/23/1993	12/23/1993	0.7
2/3/1996	2/4/1996	0.1
2/16/1996	2/16/1996	0.5
2/10/1997	2/10/1997	1.2
1/18/2000	1/18/2000	1.1
1/25/2000	1/25/2000	5.0
12/3/2000	12/3/2000	0.2
1/2/2002	1/4/2002	1.8
1/23/2003	1/23/2003	3.0
1/19/2009	1/20/2009	0.9
2/4/2009	2/4/2009	0.1
2/12/2010	2/13/2010	3.8
12/26/2010	12/26/2010	0.1
1/10/2011	1/10/2011	3.8
1/22/2011	1/22/2011	0.1
1/28/2014	1/29/2014	1.0
2/24/2015	2/24/2015	0.3
3/12/2017	3/12/2017	1.1
1/3/2018	1/4/2018	3.8
1/29/2022	1/29/2022	0.5

Page Author: Tim Armstrong
Page Created: November 10, 2014
Last Updated: February 6, 2022