Saturday ended spring, in a way, and was cool and wet

Washington Post

01-06-2025

On the last day of May, on the brink and verge of summer, Saturday in the District was breezy and bright, stormy and dark, rainy and dry, and stocked with almost every atmospheric feature that distinguishes not only one day from the next, but one hour of a day from those that come before and after.
But for all the diverse meteorological manifestations on display, it probably could not be said that Saturday was hot. If a long hot summer is in the offing, Saturday gave few clues. True, the day was long, as the days of summer are known to be, and the sun did not set until almost 8:30 p.m., but the day was not sultry or steamy or scorching or thermally unpleasant in any way.
Saturday was the day before the start of June, which is the first month of meteorological summer. On Saturday, a day which is a kind of seasonal sentinel, a day which holds such symbolic significance, few signs appeared that summer was so close.
On Saturday it was only 19 days until the solstice, the start of astronomical summer. Yet the high temperature in the District was 73 degrees, the air seemed light and fresh, and the day seemed far too pleasant even to suggest some of the atmospheric excesses associated with a Washington summer.
The 73 degree high was seven degrees below the average high in Washington for the last day of May.
When the sun shone, which was far from always, it was authorized by the calendar and astronomy to beam with peak illuminating power, with a radiance reserved for the few weeks on either side of the solstice, when it has reached its highest position above the horizon.
But in the early hours of the afternoon, sunshine alternated with thunderstorms. Dark clouds gathered and rain pelted down.
Then the rain stopped, and newly fallen droplets of water clung to or were cradled by green leaves, and in the resurgent sunshine, they glittered like gems.
If the weather on Saturday changed in the District from hour to hour and even minute to minute, it nevertheless appeared that it might not have varied as much over the miles from one part of the region to another.
At Reagan National Airport, where Washington's official readings are made, the strongest wind gust on Saturday was 49 mph. At Dulles International Airport, in Virginia, two dozen miles to the northwest, the peak gust was 46, showing a near uniformity of breeziness.
Rainfall figures appeared closely matched as well. Dulles recorded a little more than a quarter of an inch, while National reported a little less.
At Dulles, the high was 71 degrees, two less than the high recorded for D.C. It helped support characterizations of Saturday as a day of significant variation over time, substantial universality over distance.