Is this one of D.C.'s hottest summers ?

 

A warm summer's day in the nation's capital

As meteorological summer nears an end on August 31, it's a good time to review how hot this summer has been in the nation's capital. Meteorological summer spans the three-month period of June, July and August. Much of that time has been exceptionally hot, as area residents can attest. DC's five warmest summer's have all occurred since 2010, including this summer.

Despite the early taste of fall this week, August got off to a very hot start as nine of the first 10 days were warmer than average. That follows DC's second hottest June and fourth hottest July.  Weather records in the nation's capital are kept by NOAA and date back to 1871. A "warmest" or "coolest" season is based on the average monthly temperature for the said three-month period.

As of August 20, this month's average temperature (combining daily high and low temperatures) is 80.6°. Combined with how warm June and July were, this summer would tie for DC's warmest on record with a seasonal average of 81.3°.

Despite this morning's lows in the 50s, the first 50s in the nation's capital during August since 2004, temperatures will return to the 90s by early next week. Consequently, DC's average August temperature will fluctuate over the final third of the month. So, it's too early to say with certainty where this summer will rank among DC's warmest.

Even if this August were to finish with an average month temperature of 79.4° (based on NOAA's running 30-year average from 1991-2020), this summer would still finish as DC's third warmest on record with an average seasonal temperature of 80.9°.

DC's Warmest Summer's (Source: NOAA)

1. 81.3° - 2010
2. 81.1° - 2011
3. 80.5° - 2016
4. 80.4° - 2012
5. 80.2° - 2020
6. 80.0° - 1980
7. 79.5° - 2021, 2019
8. 79.4° - 2002, 1991
9. 79.3° - 2018, 1993
10. 79.2° - 2022, 1987