For second day, August in D.C. showed summer at its best

Washington Post

2 days ago

Seldom does so drastic a regime change occur in the realm of weather as in D.C. between August and July. Friday and especially Saturday, the first days of the new month seemed blissfully different from the steamy, sweltering, sultry month that came before.
The design committee for Saturday, in particular, appeared to find a way to deport and decertify almost every objectionable aspect of summer. Saturday seemed a rare day that embraced all the best of Washington's sunshine season, warm and comfortable rather than hot and miserable.
Still grateful for the departure of blazing July, the nation's capital seemed to enjoy Saturday all the more by contrasting it with what was so recently endured.
Endure seemed not a word to apply to Saturday's conditions, except of course to wish that they might somehow last long and avoid replacement by the sultry steaminess that a summer day in the city so readily provides.
The high temperature in the city was a more-than-bearable, and actually quite pleasant 82 degrees. It was seven below the normal high for Aug. 2 in the District.
As of 5 p.m., the day's low read 66. That falls into territory many experienced practitioners of shut-eye regard as good sleeping weather. It was, of course, made all the more pleasant by falling on a Saturday, reducing the need for early rising, for work or school.
Many people do not file their recollections of weather by date. So it might not be amiss to demonstrate the attractiveness of Saturday's conditions by comparing them with those experienced last year on Saturday's date.
On Aug. 2, 2024, Washington's high reached 99 degrees, and in the morning went no lower than 80. Although it may seem as much a matter of accountancy as meteorology, the difference in weather between last year and this may be expressed this way:
Saturday's high temperature was only two degrees above last year's Aug. 2 low temperature.
It might be called a Tale of Two Cities if it didn't describe only one city, Washington.
Consider the heat index. It is regarded as a 'feels-like' temperature. Often it describes unpleasantness far worse than the thermometer will say. But on Saturday the heat index and the thermometer reading were about the same.
On Saturday, the dew point, another indicator of discomfort, dwelled in the 50s for much of the day and suggested that there was a lack of discomfort to indicate.
The air felt sweet and soft, and perhaps almost reminiscent of spring. Clouds did abound but blue skies could be seen. In late afternoon, sunbeams slanted down from openings in a cluster of clouds, and these shafts of sunlight appeared as silvery streaks against the gray.
How such a day came to be Washington's lot, who should be credited with creating it, what borders it may have crossed, what the costs were, which taxes and tolls were paid or forgiven, all seemed good questions. For another day.