Has anyone noticed that our local weather in the D.C. region has turned truly screwy? We go from one bizarre weather condition to the next with almost no pause in between for “normal” conditions. It’s too wet, too dry, too cold, too warm, too windy – nearly all the time. Hmmm? And scientists and average people all over the world, from Japan to Argentina, report similar strangeness. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times recently wrote from Kenya that the Serengeti’s April rains, so critical to that famous ecosystem, haven’t shown up this spring. And they didn’t come last year. There’s just no normal weather anymore. Anywhere.
In the D.C. region nothing illustrates this better than the annual Martin Luther King parade. Last year, tired of the cold and grayness of January, the organizers decided to move the annual parade to early April. The result? This year on January 16th (the official King holiday) it was 70 degrees in D.C. Remember all that freakish winter warmth? Outdoor barbeques broke out all over the city on backyard decks still festooned with Christmas decorations. And on Saturday, April 7th, the date of the “warmer” and more hospitable MLK parade? There was actually snow on the ground. The parade majorettes and tuba players woke up to 34 degrees and a blanket of snow on the ground, the most April snow in DC since 1924.
And yes, I know: There’s always been weird weather that occasionally defies the seasonal norms, sometimes dramatically. It’s part of the natural unpredictability of weather. And if you listen to the dismissive climate rants of the Rush Limbaugh crowd, you’ll yield to that inner voice that wants to reassuringly say: Don’t worry. It’s all normal. Everything’s okay.
The reality is this: changes are happening to our local weather. Right now. And you’ve seen the evidence with your own eyes. Just look at the last 14 months in the D.C. region. People so easily forget – and I think many want to forget — all the weather anomalies of the past few months and years. By doing so we’re able to avoid acknowledging the truly disturbing pattern of local strangeness.
First off, anyone remember a year ago March? Who recalls that we had zero – absolutely zero – rain in Washington during that month? No measurable precipitation recorded at Reagan National Airport for all of March 2006. March is normally one of our wettest months of the year in D.C. But March 2006 was drier in D.C. than in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. Extremely odd.
Followed by what? Followed by rain in June 2006 the likes of which almost no one in D.C. has ever seen before. A record 14 inches fell for the month at National Airport. An astonishing 8 inches fell in 24 hours in late June. Sligo Creek near where I live in Takoma Park became a roaring torrent, washing away entire pedestrian bridges and playgrounds and damaging roads. In nearly 20 years of living in Takoma Park, I’d never seen anything close to it.
