D.C.’s Remarkable 2022 Weather

 

The Nation’s Capital had a memorable weather year in 2022 that will finish warmer and wetter than average.  That’s despite an unusually cold January and October, in addition to four consecutive drier than average months through November.  Several other significant weather occurrences took place in Washington, D.C.

January 2022 finished as D.C.’s snowiest January (and overall month) since 2016.  This past January featured several snow events that produced a monthly total of 12.3” (roughly triple D.C.’s January snowfall average of 4.9”).  Despite the snowy January, the 2021-2022 winter season still finished with below average snowfall.  January also finished as D.C.’s coldest since 2014.  D.C.’s coldest temperature of the year occurred on January 22 (16°).

March was a warmer than average month in the Nation’s Capital and finished with a monthly temperature 2.8° above average.  It was followed by a cooler and wetter than average April.  When the Wells Fargo Championship golf event took place in Potomac, Maryland in early May the weather did not cooperate.  It was unseasonably cool with highs in the 50s on May 7 and 8 and measurable rainfall on five of the first seven days of the month.

Not only did a record high of 99° occur on June 17, but that was D.C.’s hottest June temperature in nearly a decade since June 29, 2012 (104°).  It would prove to be D.C.’s hottest temperature of the entire summer.  Ironically, this record heat was followed by a record-tying low temperature of 48° at Dulles Airport on June 20 and a record low of 51° at BWI Airport. 

July 2022 turned out to be D.C.’s rainiest month of the year with 7.61” (3.28” above average).  More than half of that occurred on July 9 (4.05”), which was D.C’s fifth wettest July day on record.  More rain fell in the Nation’s Capital on July 9 than in any of the following four months.  August through November were each drier than average and that produced a rainfall deficit of 3.63” in Washington, D.C.  That isn’t a large enough deficit, however, to prevent the Nation’s Capital from finishing with another wetter than average year.  Even if no more rain were to occur this month, D.C. would finish 2022 with 42.06” of annual rainfall.  According to NOAA, Washington, D.C. averages 41.82” of rain in a calendar year.