A surprisingly cool day to happen so late in May.

Washington Post

24-05-2025

On the day spring began many weeks ago, it was warmer in the District than it was Friday, a day on the doorstep of the unofficial start of summer. So Friday may have tested the patience of heat worshipers, but it also seemed in its cool, fresh and windy way a pleasant day in any season.
Rather than provoke grumbling discontents, Friday in its exhilarating absence of thermal malice could be regarded as a welcome departure from deep-rooted Washington weather traditions. On March 20, the high in D.C. was 78. Against history and popular expectations, the official high temperature in the capital on Friday was only 70 degrees.
On the eve of the long Memorial Day weekend, a day so free of any suggestion of sultriness or swelter might be regarded as a good will offering from nature on a day when the summer solstice was but four weeks away.
It also might have been regarded as a surprise, eight degrees below average for the date, and 27 degrees below the record for May 23 in the District. That record was 97, and perhaps oddly, set exactly 100 years ago. It seemed likely that the 97 on May 23, 1925 was far more surprising and far less welcome than Friday's 70.
At Dulles International Airport, Friday was even cooler with a high of 66.
In the District, it was cloudy much of the time, but as of 7 p.m., at least, it had rained not at all. The clouds that dominated the city's skies thus far seemed businesslike. For the most part, they were not the fluffy, billowing white clouds that might have helped populate dreams of summertime laziness.
Instead, they seemed to be constructed of many long streaks and strands of grayness, and perhaps in part they represented the windblown remainders, and reminders, of what had been a rainy week.
If these could indeed be seen as remnants it was understandable. Strong breezes went to work in the District on Friday, pushing clouds about, sending them flying harmlessly across the skies. At many hours wind gusts reached a strength in the 20 and 30 mph range. Tree branches tossed and leaves fluttered. At least one gust reached 34 mph.
But however dark the clouds may have looked, the air was dry, and carried not a hint of humidity or rain.
Of rain, May had its share and more. Measurable rain had fallen in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday, and on at least 11 days in all this month. Traces of rain, amounts too small to measure fell on five other days.
The 5.47 inches that had fallen before Friday, 2.55 more than average, seemed to mark a wet reversal of Washington's previous precipitation-related fortunes. The region as a whole had ranked high in the drought category.
Knowledge of all the rain that had fallen probably influenced the interpretation of Friday's gray skies, suggesting that the profusion of torn or tattered clouds seemingly scattered everywhere, represented the windswept aftermath of not merely this week's rain, but also of many other wet days in May.