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| Cooler temperatures are on the way in the DMV (Source: NOAA) |
Temperatures in the nation’s capital will reach the 90s on five days this week. That’s DC’s highest such total since September 2019, which finished with nine days in the 90s. One record high was set at National Airport yesterday, with the potential for another today and tomorrow.
Washington, D.C. has
averaged between three and four September days with highs in the 90s over the
last 30 years. It’s not unusual for the
first week of September to feature the hottest weather of the month. What is unusual, however, is the intensity of
this week’s heat when multiple record highs will be set at DC’s three area
airports (Reagan National, Dulles and BWI-Marshall).
The intensity of this week’s heat is also noteworthy as it followed DC’s first cooler than average August since 2017. DC’s hottest temperature this year, 98° occurred on September 4. That was also DC’s hottest temperature since June 17, 2022, when it was 99°. Dulles Airport also tied its record high for the entire month of September when it was 99° on September 3 and 4.
NOAA’s Climate
Prediction Center expects cooler, more fall-like temperatures to return this
weekend and continue through the middle of September. That’s doesn’t mean the nation’s capital
would be finished with 90° for the year.
While any 90° heat in October is a very rare occurrence in the nation’s capital, it isn’t unprecedented. There have been only six Octobers dating back to 1993 that DC residents have had temperatures in the 90s. The most recent occurrence was on October 2, 2019. The latest in the year Washingtonians have experienced 90° heat is October 11.
Despite the historic
heat over the first week of September, it’s too early to say whether this month
will finish among DC’s warmest. Either
way, five of DC’s 10 warmest September’s have occurred just since 2010.
1. 77.1° (1980)
2. 76.5° (2019)
3. 76.0° (2016, 1930)
5. 75.5° (2018, 2010)
7. 75.4° (1998)
8. 75.0° (2005, 1970)
10. 74.9° (2015)
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