kgottwald

Little patches of blue sky finally, in Fairfax City.

It was in the sixties when I left the house, and I assumed the temperature would hold steady all day. Didn't expect it to get this nippy.

Rainy, dark and dreary.

Starting to rain, because God forbid I should ever get to walk to the metro station on a morning that's mild enough to not need a jacket without being rained on!

Overcast since 11 a.m.

Another cloudy day in store, sigh. At least it's supposed to warm up a bit.

NWS sites used to measure "daily minutes of sunshine" but stopped doing that in 1998 - something to do with the switch to ASOS. Big step backwards.

Arizona dreamin' on such a winter's day

Complete overcast in Fairfax. Thought it was supposed to be sunny.

Heavy rain in Tysons. The rain keeps coming in from the southwest. This line is not moving east at all. Looks like I might have to wait for sunset for the rain to stop.

Nothing in Tysons. Just fast-moving clouds and bordering-on-chilly humidity.

45 degrees but doesn't feel like it. Why does a south wind feel so damn cold?

I bet DC has never had a day with its high at midnight and its low at 1:30 p.m.!

Let's do it again on April 15!

Untraveled roadways getting slushy.

Sidewalks starting to whiten.

Snowing hard at GMU. Mulch is white, grass is caving. Tomorrow is the anniversary of a serious ice storm in 1984, the latest in the year that I can remember. It followed the thundersnow on March 8, when IAD got four inches in one hour!

Moderate snow mixed with rain. Don't see that too often; mixes are almost always light intensity.

Snow mixing in, in Fairfax City.

Seems like the only time it's 100% sunny at this time of year is after an arctic front comes through, so you have to put up with bitter winds to get the sun. So cold and raw, during my walk to the supermarket my hands were aching and burning after 20 minutes (I thought I could manage without gloves, because it makes it a lot easier to read on my phone). And it doesn't feel like the front is going to lift north any time soon. If I could afford it, I'd spend every February through June in Phoenix or Tucson. IMO April in Arizona is the perfect climate: upper 50s at sunrise so it's cool enough to walk to the grocery store without overheating. Dewpoints in the teens and twenties making the 90-degree afternoons pleasantly cool in the shade and pleasantly warm in the sun. I could leave my windows open 24-7. Not a drop of rain all month. Not a cloud in the sky all month!

Also, the last week of early sunrises: cloudy every morning. We really need to go back to year-round standard time already.

Reading today's AFD, I knew several days of 70+ temps was too good to be true. There's always a damned wedge.

Spring fever yesterday! Warmer than it's been since November.

High-level clouds mostly obscuring the sun. Waiting for the bright sunshine NWS promises.

Fun fact: DCA's monthly high so far is 57. If we don't hit 60 before Saturday, this would be the coldest February high since 2010 (which topped out at 50).