Last week was a scorcher. It also was the longest we’ve been without a drop of rain since the 12 day dry period around Thanksgiving last year, November 15-26. Of course in the two weeks prior to that there was only 0.59” of rain on three days, where we had been soaked with 4.5” of rain since the beginning of July - 14.72” if you go back to the beginning of June. 2013 has been a wetter year than last for the country east of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. A graphic showing how the drought has eased accompanies this post.
So what’s worse? Hot days or hot nights? At National airport we had five nights with overnight lows 80 degrees or above July 16-20 - breaking the record set in July 2011 for successive nights 80 degrees or higher. We had 95 degrees or warmer during the day for this period last week as well. If you jumped into the Potomac river for relief, you discovered there wasn’t much to be had as the water temperature measured at Little Falls was 88 degrees.
My rain gauge in Lorton recorded no rain last week.
