Monday, the first full day of winter in Washington, was about as warm or as cool as might be expected. It was unlike, for example, Dec. 22 in 1889, when the capital anticipated Christmas and the New Year in 72-degree warmth.
That 72 remains the record high temperature in D.C. for Monday’s date, a reading never exceeded, although it was matched in 2013.
On Monday the mercury conducted itself with greater meteorological decorum, adhering more closely to norms and averages. The high was 46 degrees, only one below the average high temperature in Washington on the date, which fell a day after Sunday’s winter solstice.
That average was 47.
Monday seemed to have much to commend it, during daylight at any rate. It was bright, with far more blue sky than clouds, and the air seemed clean and crisp and even energizing.
The sun still set well before 5 p.m., at around 4:50 p.m. But that was no surprise. By now it seems to be understood that the lengthening of daylight after the solstice is a long and slow process. It does not occur, it might be said, overnight.
And as a partial reminder that this remains a time of long nights and persistent darkness, the temperature in the early morning sank to 28 degrees.
That was 4 below freezing, 5 below the normal low in the District for the date.
That morning low was 19 degrees below Monday’s high reading,
Notably, it was also 44 degrees below that 72-degree record high for Dec. 22. That high was first officially observed 136 years ago, during the administration of president Benjamin Harrison.
The warmth of that day was noted in the following day’s edition of The Washington Post. It was cited in an account of the weather that could be expected three days later, on Christmas Day.
A government forecaster told the newspaper that there would be no snow on Christmas, explaining that there was “no place for a cold wave to come from that could reach us.”
The weather all over the country was mild on the evening of Dec. 22, 1889, he said,
He noted, without published comment, that the high temperature in Washington that day had indeed reached 72.
The next time the temperature touched 72 on Monday’s date was 12 years ago. The Post ran a photograph the next day on the first page of the Metro news section.
It showed a shirtless jogger, near Roosevelt Island, and a caption said he was taking advantage “of the unusual winter warm spell.”
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