Friday, June 19, 2020

What Month Is It ?



Yesterday’s high temperature of 81° in the Nation’s Capital broke a stretch of what had been four consecutive days with highs in the 70s.  Although temperatures today will once again be either side of 80°, that’s still below DC’s June 19th average of 85°.

DC’s high temperature of 73° on Wednesday was its coolest June high temperature in more than three years since June 7, 2017.  While having four consecutive days at/under 80° in the Nation’s Capital during the month of June is somewhat unusual, it is hardly unprecedented.  In fact, there have been 18 such occurrences in Washington, D.C. dating back to June 1993, with the most recent being June 5 – June 8, 2017. 

One of DC’s coolest June’s in the last 50 years came in 2003, with a total of 12 days of high temperatures below 80°.  A record for coolest high temperature was set on June 4 when it was only 60°.  Also, June 2003 was DC’s seventh wettest on record with 7.87” of rain. 

June 1999 was another unusual month in the Nation’s Capital.  Washingtonians experienced three consecutive sweltering days from June 7 – 9 when high temperatures reached 98°, setting record highs on two of those days.  But, a significant change in the weather pattern ensued and high temperatures remained below 80° on five consecutive days from June 16 – 21.  That included a record low-high temperature of 65° on June 20, 1999.


June 1997 was also quite unusual weatherwise in the Nation’s Capital.  High temperatures remained below 80° from June 1 – June 8.  Three of those eight days had high temperatures in the 60s and June 3 had a March-like high temperature of 58° (a record for coolest high temperature for the date).  However, a nine-day heat wave occurred from June 20 – June 28 with a record high temperature of 100° on June 25.  Nevertheless, the first half of month was so much cooler than average that the significant heat late in the month was not enough to prevent June 1997 from finishing roughly 2° cooler than average.

This week’s weather has been unusually cool in the Nation’s Capital, but it hasn’t been record setting.  Despite this week’s cooler than average weather, June 2020 has been a warmer than average month.  That’s largely been a function of how warm many of the overnight low temperatures have been.

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