kgottwald

Sudden pop-up shower over Fairfax City. Pouring at GMU right now. But patches of blue sky are still visible!

Never mind the back-and-forth, I'm just thoroughly tired of the 70+ dewpoints, which according to the AFD won't be decreased by the upcoming "cold" fronts. Can't wait for the cooling trend.

I hope Chicago doesn't get another surprise low-60s-and-heavy-drizzle day like Friday. Damn near froze my tuchus off, because I had packed only shorts and T-shirts, anticipating upper 70s highs at least.

I'm in Chicago until 7/21, and I'm sure not loving this humidity. Any chance of a real cold front in the foreseeable future that will knock the DPs down to 50 or below??

At 3 p.m. it looked like a nasty line of storms was heading straight for Tysons Corner. But all we got was clouds - not even much wind! Sun back out in Vienna.

Yesterday the extended forecast was an unbroken string of 100's with zero rain. Long-range models always exaggerate about these things. Today the afternoon storm chances begin on Wednesday, and we go back to seasonal norms with daily storm risks. Only a mini-heatwave, I guess.

Really, really tired of day after day of drizzle/mist. I want a clear morning for once! The earliest sunrises of the year, and we're missing them all!! And some sub-50 dewpoints would be nice too. Already sick of the humidity.

I thought the cold front was supposed to sweep through right after the rain stopped, around 8 a.m. Sure is taking its sweet time getting here!

Dewpoints rapidly heading toward stifling level.

When trying to decide whether I need to bring my umbrella today, I check the NWS forecast for Fairfax County inside the beltway: "Scattered showers after 2 p.m." Then I check the AFD: "Some shower activity is likely to develop today, particularly west of U.S. 15 where scattered showers are in the forecast. . . . High-resolution models bring scattered showers toward the I-95 corridor just after sundown." I didn't know where the heck US 15 is (why can't they use placenames instead of highways??) so I check the map and see it's way out past Leesburg! So the forecast and the discussion are mutually contradictory. I'll chance leaving the umbrella at home, because when I haul that thing around all day and not a drop of rain falls, I feel like I've been made a fool of.

That was also the driest April in recorded history; surely the only April since white settlement where the majority of the precipitation was snow! Almost every day was dry, warm and sunny, the pleasantest month for outdoor activities in my lifetime.

Forecast high is 74. I have a feeling, though, that the warm air won't reach Fairfax.

Florida weather

Still feels chilly - and oddly damp considering the low dewpoint.

That must have been 1994. Damn near every storm that winter was ice, very little snow. January 19 only reached 8 at DCA after a low of -4!!

December 30, 2000. Fairfax County was supposed to get 4 to 8 inches. We got . . . CLEAR SKIES. It wasn't even cloudy. Now THAT'S a bust. Runner-up: losing a promised white Christmas in 1985, because "the cold air stalled over the Appalachians." I'll never forget that.

Back to rain.

The brief snow earlier had changed to rain; now it's back to snow. Wind finally shifted to NW at IAD.

Snow starting to mix with the rain in Vienna VA.

I fully expect Inauguration Day to be 65 and sunny, if it isn't 80 and humid.

Heavy unforecast drizzle on my walk to work in Tysons Corner. We'll see if this next cold front comes through as promised, or whether it turns tail and retreats to Minneapolis leaving us with 60+ dewpoints until December.

DCA's record is 15 days, April 27 to May 11 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/10/02/dc-rainy-streak-record/

And NWS says another whole week with little or no sunshine, and rain every day.

Dewpoints forecast to stay in the subtropical to tropical range for the foreseeable future. Wake me when a real cold front arrives.

Wonder if it's possible to get through all of September with absolutely zero rain. Only calendar month that's happened with is October 1963, counting traces as zero. But the DCA absolute drought record is 34 days in the fall of 2007.