Washington’s weather on Tuesday seemed simple to describe, without nuance, complexity or ambiguity. It was cold, and it was windy, and the combination proved uncomfortable.
The temperature never climbed out of the 30s. The wind seemed to gust for hours in the 30 mph range. Wind chill seemed more than a quaint meteorological conception.
Instead the wind chill seemed an intrusive fact of time spent outdoors. A combination of the effects of wind and cold, the wind chill reading indicated that when Washington confronted the elements on Tuesday, it met conditions comparable to life constantly below freezing.
Throughout the day, the wind chill reading, a “feels-like” reading, seemed to suggest what life was like in temperatures that stayed in the frigid 20s.
Tuesday, December’s next-to-last day, the 364th day of the year, the last day before New Year’s Eve, may have by its calendar position alone merited more than average scrutiny.
But, at least in the District, it also seemed like a day that might have prompted special attention on its own, for the speed and sting of its wind and for the icy feel of its air, without regard to its prominent place on the calendar.
Some cold days have already shown up in Washington this month. December, to grant it its due, has provided opportunities to renew acquaintance with winter, and to learn to coexist with cold.
But it remained unclear whether Washington had been made ready for such a day as Tuesday.
In summer, discomfort is often ascribed not so much to heat but to humidity. On Tuesday, discomfort seemed not so much the cold, perhaps, as the wind.
In fact, it may have been both. The day’s high temperature was 37 degrees. Not freezing, but fairly cold. It was nine degrees below the normal high for Washington on the next-to-last day of the year. Nine degrees colder than normal for a winter day may strike many as indisputably cold.
From midmorning through midafternoon, peak gusts remained above 30 mph. They flung cold air into faces, and helped the cold penetrate coats and other clothing.
Strong sustained winds remained in the upper teens when not in the 20s.
For a few minutes, in the outdoors, beneath Tuesday’s often blue skies, the wind and the cold seemed almost exhilarating, fostering alertness, energy and vitality. But protracted periods outdoors eventually seemed to suggest the attractions of life indoors.
It was only December, and winter has not been here long. But even if the season is still young, Tuesday seemed obviously, insistently and at times perhaps uncomfortably, to be cold, windy winter.
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