Saturday brought another cold day to the capital, but in comparison with the wintry rigors of windy Friday, Saturday seemed benign, benevolent and almost springlike.
In Washington, the mercury dipped on Saturday morning to two degrees below freezing, and was spotted down there at 30 degrees at 7:16 a.m.
That was eight degrees below the normal low temperature for the city on the next-to-last day of the year’s next-to-last month.
Perhaps it did not seem an auspicious way to start a day, not a good omen, especially on the heels of Friday with its display of winter’s chill.
But Saturday brought a comparatively small contingent of clouds, lots of sunshine, and air that lacked the almost belligerent jostling of the day before. On Saturday, the peak wind was in its low teens, at 13 mph, and the strongest gust was 17 mph.
This made a difference. If in summer it is not the heat, but the humidity, than in November, it is not so much the cold as the wind.
As of 5 p.m. on Saturday, the strongest sustained wind was only half of Friday’s 26 mph. And the most punitive gust was less than half of Friday’s 40 mph.
At the end of the day on Friday, the wind averaged a speed of 12.3 mph. On Saturday, as of late afternoon, the average was 5.7 mph, less than half as strong.
It could be argued that those figures distinguished Saturday, with its comparative meteorological allure, from Friday, which seemed a stern messenger of winter.
Saturday’s high reading of 44 was the same as the high reading on Friday. But on Saturday, more consistent sunshine may have provided the tiebreaker, distinguishing one day from another.
Official temperature readings are made in the shade. But sunshine acts as a kind of influencer, even in those darker places where its rays do not directly strike. And, of course, more sunshine combined with less wind gave Saturday an obvious advantage in terms of its comfort quotient.
However, the day’s average temperature, the average of its high and its low (as of late afternoon) was 37 degrees, actually one less than Friday’s 38.
But significantly, Saturday’s blue skies often seemed almost off-limits to clouds. Those that did float like islands in the sea of pale blue were generally characterized by the National Weather Service as few in number.
At many hours in many places in Washington the daytime half-moon could be easily discerned. Also prominent were long and narrow streaks of white. Stretched across the sky like ropes, they indicated the passage of jet airplanes, miles above.
It seemed possible on Saturday to imagine that those white lines extending into the blue distance may have been the tracks of flights filled with holiday travelers, passing high over the city, returning to homes or schools or places of employment on the third day of the four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
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