Ranking July 2025 weather in the nation’s capital

 

The Washington Monument

July 2025 will finish as a warmer than average month with multiple days of scattered showers and thunderstorms. Measurable rainfall occurred on 13 days this month with many flooding events around DC, Maryland and Virginia (DMV). That’s the result of a wetter than average May and June that left grounds saturated as July got underway.

Although Washington, D.C. itself could finish with below average rainfall depending on how much rain occurs today (a monthly rainfall deficit of 0.87” exists at National Airport as of this writing), much of the DMV has seen above average July rainfall. This month’s rainiest day in the nation’s capital was July 9^th with 1.16”.

This month’s other big weather story is the oppressive heat and humidity. That’s fitting since July is not only DC’s rainiest month, but is also the warmest month of the year. While no record warmth occurred in the nation’s capital, it has been consistently hot and humid. The oppressive relative humidity led to the National Weather Service issuing heat advisories for parts of the DMV on several July days.

The combination of summertime heat and humidity is known as the heat index or “feels-like” temperature. It’s the summertime equivalent to the wind chill in the winter. Whenever it’s more humid, air temperatures cannot fall as much as they otherwise would.  The combination of long stretches of unusually oppressive weather and the urban heat island effect helped this month’s low temperatures remain warmer than they otherwise would.

July 2025 finished as the tenth warmest on record in the nation's capital. That’s despite no triple-digit heat (unlike four such days last July) and no record heat. When looking at DC’s 10 warmest July’s, this month’s average low temperature of 74.5° is more than two degrees warmer than average (72.4°).

DC's warmest July's based on monthly average (Source: NOAA)

1. 84.5° (2011)  (Average high: 93.6°, Average low: 75.4°)
2. 84.0° (2012)  (Average high: 93.1°, Average low: 74.9°)
3. 83.9° (2020)  (Average high: 92.7°, Average low: 75°)
4. 83.7° (2024)  (Average high: 92.4°, Average low: 75°)
5. 83.1° (2010, 1993)  (Average high: 92.3°, 92.5°, Average low: 73.9°, 73.7°)
7. 83.0° (1999)  (Average high: 92.8°, Average low: 73.1°)
8. 82.7° (2016)  (Average high: 91.2°, Average low: 74.3°)
9. 82.6° (1987)  (Average high: 92.2°, Average low: 72.9°)
10. 82.4° (2025)  (Average high: 90.3°, Average low: 74.5°)

Average: 81° (Average high: 89.6°, Average low: 72.4°)

Weather Quiz

 

Summer in the nation's capital

True or False.

July 30 is one of only three July days that the nation’s capital hasn’t been at least 100° since official weather records began in 1871.

Is July DC’s wettest month?

 

U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, D.C.

NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) current 30-year average temperature and precipitation totals for the United States reflect the period of 1991-2020. Since this period was appreciably warmer and wetter in the nation’s capital than the previous 30-year period of 1981-2010, there were significant changes. July saw the most significant changes in the updated data set.

Previously, July was DC’s third wettest month of the year with an average of 3.73” of rain. However, things changed dramatically with NOAA’s updated climate statistics that saw the decade of the 2010s replace the 1980s. July is now the wettest month of the year in the nation’s capital with a new monthly rainfall average of 4.33”. 

Here’s a look at recent rainy July’s in the DMV (DC, Maryland and Virginia).

2022: This July continued the recent trend in the nation’s capital for exceptionally wet days. A total of 4.05” fell on July 9, which was DC’s fifth wettest July day. To add to that, a daily rainfall record was set merely a week later on July 16 with another 1.38”. The combined rainfall of 5.43” on these two days accounted for nearly 75% of the monthly rainfall total of 7.61”.

2020: The monthly rainfall total of 6.51” was above average. What made this July significant was that 60% of the monthly rainfall occurred on just two days. A daily rainfall record of 2.04” occurred on July 7, while another 1.89” fell on July 23.  

2019: This July got off to wet start with measurable rainfall on five of its first eight days. The signature rainfall event was on July 8 when a daily rainfall record of 3.44” occurred at National Airport. That accounted for more than half of DC’s monthly total of 6.49”. Most of that rain fell in less than two hours, snarling the morning commute across the DMV.

2018:  An impressive total of 4” of rain fell at National Airport on July 21 that set a new daily rainfall record. Moreover, 8.52” of rain fell during the eight-day period from July 17 – July 24. It finished as the fourth wettest July in the nation’s capital with 9.73”.

2017:  This July finished with 9.15” of rain, making it DC’s wettest since 1969. During an eight-day period from July 22 – July 29, a total of 6.15” of rain fell that accounted for more than two-thirds of DC’s monthly total. The wettest day of the month was on July 28 when a daily rainfall record 3.31” was recorded at National Airport.