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°)