kgottwald

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).

Absolutely pouring in Fairfax City. So dark it looks like 45 minutes before sunrise.

Waiting for the rain, so the snowcrete mountains will start eroding. Strange to realize it hasn't rained here since January 17!

Also, that followed the legendary March 1960, with three substantial snows and temps below 40 for most of the month!

Temperature rose overnight, 46 at Dulles. But apparently that's going to be the high as we have a NW wind. The new AFD format is complete ass. It doesn't talk about today's weather at all, just a phantom winter storm and upslope snow. I don't live in the mountains and I don't care about their weather! I want to know about factors affecting MBY!

When it gets back into the mid-forties on Tuesday it's gonna feel like midsummer. Might wear shorts and a T-shirt.

11 looks to be the low at Dulles - no single digits around here.

We've had plenty of wind over the past couple months, and zero leaves on the trees. Crossing fingers and praying that power outages won't happen!

I actually wish it would warm up. I'm getting tired of most of the sidewalks in commercial areas being permanently blocked. And the pedestrian trail from the Vienna Woods neighborhood to the Metro station is still a sheet of ice which requires slow careful navigation to avoid falling. VDOT or whoever is supposed to maintain this trail obviously doesn't give one-tenth of a shit about pedestrians. I'd like a week of sunshine and 60-degree temps, staying above freezing at night. Or, failing that, an inch of rain at 50 degrees.

Dulles stuck at 14. Still no mention of the blown low temp predictions in the AFD. But the "no longer an obvious coldest night" bit has been copied and pasted into every AFD for *days on end*. That's just plain lazy.

Three days of sunshine and not even the roofs of the houses across the street have lost their snowcover. Normally those are the first places to melt off, almost always the day after the snow.

I wish the WaPo would put Martin Weil on a different beat. I really, really dislike his "semi-cutesy" writing style.

LWX AFD has not a word about the busted low temp forecast. The AFDs in general have gotten a lot more boring and cookie-cutter since I first started following them in 1993.

I'm pretty sure it was January 19, 1994, with the monster ice storm and even DCA dropping to -4. BWI, DCA and IAD all had *highs* below 10!!

I hate sleet. It's going to take the damn Incredible Hulk to shovel this crap.

The short-range models completely missed this little low or whatever it is.

There's some stuff on radar to the NW. Virga, doubtless.

Been overcast since 9:15 in Fairfax City despite a mostly sunny forecast. I note the AFDs have a new format with "keypoints" rather than being organized strictly chronologically. Wonder why they decided to screw around with it.

I bet my boots that the December 30, 2000 storm was like that. NWS promised (IIRC) 3 to 6 inches inside the Beltway - what we got was *clear skies!* Epic level model fail.

Looked like it was going to be a sunny day for the first time in forever, but in the last ten minutes, whoops! Here come the clouds, rolling in as always . . . Blah!