June began on Saturday in the nation’s capital, with one of those days so warm and dry, and with a wonderful atmosphere that might have seemed like a dream, if Washington had not had an almost identical day on Friday.
With its high temperature of 81 degrees, Washington exactly matched the average high for such an important calendar day as the first day of June, the month identified with all kinds of joyous outdoor celebrations, and also with the beginning of astronomical summer.
81 degrees was a balmy temperature, marking a day that seemed content to grant barbecues the indisputable right to sizzle and limit any visible steam to food preparation.
Saturday looked like a dry day in the most obvious sense, meaning it didn’t rain, at least not until the early afternoon. In the apparent absence of rain, or its apparent likelihood, Saturday departed from a tradition established in May. Last month it rained every Saturday, and a couple of them had a lot of rain.
But by early afternoon, DC’s first Saturday in June appeared to revoke weekly rain and cloud permits. Furthermore, to the untrained eye, Saturday gave little sign that precipitation would be allowed in the evening.
There were indeed clouds on Saturday, but they looked like high clouds, perhaps five miles high, and thin, almost vaporous, as if they were made of a fragile fabric with carefully separated strands.
Humidity, the unwelcome guest on many warm days in Washington, seemed in short supply. Quantities such as dew points and heat indices are often cited as numerical explanations for hot weather discomfort. Although these amounts could be calculated on Saturday, they could easily be dropped from the comfort equation.
For example, at 2 p.m., with the mercury at 80 degrees, the dew point was recorded more than 30 degrees below. It was an almost absurdly low 49 degrees. In practice, this meant that there was no way to squeeze raindrops out of the unusually dry air.
It is often said that East is East and West is West. But on Saturday, Washington appeared to show similarities to conditions often experienced near the other side of the continent. It seemed to show an unusually strong resemblance to sections of Southern California, at least in terms of meteorology.
In all this, the Sabbath seemed to show its kinship with Friday, a day similar in many ways. With a high temperature of 70 degrees, Friday was often described as an example of the type of weather that should be called for in the Washington area more often.
Keynote USA
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