kgottwald

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.

The cool air was supposed to arrive during daylight hours, but OF COURSE it's been delayed until late night as always happens during the hot season.

Cloudy in Tysons Corner right now - will this stick around and moderate the heat?

Clouds covering most of the sky already. Forecasters should know that it practically takes divine intervention to get 100% sunshine in August, especially the day after widespread showers.

My house is near the center of the dry bullseye in Fairfax County.

The front was originally supposed to blast through yesterday afternoon and plunge the dewpoints into the fifties,wasn't it?? This morning's AFD yanks that away: oops, scratch that, the front is now just a pathetic, wheezy little thing which will barely dry us out until tomorrow. Christ, I'm sick and damn tired of this humidity and of the models raising false hope yet again.

Dewpoint at IAD is 75, up to "uncomfortable even standing still" levels. Is it going to hit 79 like it did in Savannah? Sure hope not.

Is the immediate DC metro area going to get *any* sun today?? Hour after hour of overcast and tropical humidity is sapping my patience.

Two separate showers with bright sunshine between 5 and 6 pm. Outer fringes of the heavy showers that popped up just south of 66.