This year’s summer of cool weather continues. Last Tuesday, the high only reached 74 degrees at Reagan National Airport, which was a record for the lowest maximum temperature on that date. Also at National, we had a streak of days that hadn’t reach 90 degrees, but that ended last Friday when the temperature hit 93 degrees at 4:32pm after 18 days below 90 degrees (from July 22 to August 9). There’s actually significant variability in strings like this - July and August of 2004 were cool as well, having only three days above 90 degrees. 2002 had only two! This summer probably seems more remarkable after last year’s July and August heat, with 90 degrees seemingly a daily event and 100 degrees no longer being rare. With the same equipment this year as last, I am happy that my Dominion electric bill shows significantly less electricity usage this summer.
In the coming week or two, it looks like the cool and moist spell continues, according to the forecast from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.
My rain gauge in Lorton recorded 0.37” of rain last week.
