In Washington on Saturday, the atmosphere appeared to acknowledge the heritage of heat bequeathed by Friday, and while the day was cooler, and cloudier, it was still comfortable.
Washington, D.C
After heat record is set here, D.C. was cooler, still comfortable
With a high temperature of 61, it too seemed more springlike than wintry.
It was 16 degrees above the Jan. 27 average, and had it not occurred the day after Friday’s stunning thermal spike, Saturday’s reading might have drawn more attention to its own achievements.
A 61-degree high demonstrated meteorological precocity. It presented Washington with an environmental performance that could be considered to be two full months ahead of its time.
By the figures issued by the National Weather Service, Saturday’s 61-degree high only becomes the average high in D.C. on March 28 and 29.
It is possible, however, that any giddiness or high spirits prompted by the thermometer reading were suppressed somewhat by a sky that for much of Saturday’s daylight hours was largely dominated by gray clouds.
Weather forecasts for Saturday night and for Sunday spoke of rain. Even to the least weather-savvy, Saturday’s skies seemed to endorse that likelihood. They suggested that rain could come as no great surprise.
Dark gray clouds made their way across a background composed of clouds of a lighter gray, at higher elevations. A rotundity displayed by some of them hinted at the quantities of water droplets they might be preparing to unleash.
Although the day did not seem particularly humid, neither did it offer the sense of midwinter crispness. If not a notably damp day it gave a sense of verging on dampness.
And perhaps the stillness of the air, the lack of any wind to speak of, contributed to a suspicion of what was to come.
It helped to convey the feeling that the city might be experiencing a period of slightly moist calm before the arrival of the proverbial and predicted rainstorm.