Sometimes it seems as if a summer day in the nation's capital must be nothing but blazing heat and brutal humidity, as if that were some law of nature. But it isn't. Saturday, with all its pleasant qualities, was more like what people have a right to expect.
Saturday, by the standard measurements and according to the usual data, came pretty close to the averages for a day in the District at this time in summer. And it also seemed a fine day, with a high enjoyment quotient. It appeared suitable for any number of activities including merely watching the clouds drift across a blue sky.
In the District, the high of 88 degrees actually fell a full degree below the D.C. average for July 5. And significantly, the low of 69 was three degrees below the city's average low temperature for the date.
A low in the 60s, even in the upper 60s, may almost in itself be an occasion for rejoicing. Low morning temperatures may readily be correlated with the opportunity for sounder summertime sleep. From June 21 until Saturday, Washington had provided only a single day with a low in the 60s.
Importantly, Saturday did not seem a notably humid day. Dew points, with an occasional deviation, stayed in the lower half of the 60-degree range. With temperatures in the 80s, and dew points in the 60s, it might be expected that the heat index would also seem relatively tame.
It did not disappoint. Even with the obvious obstacles. It seemed unlikely that Saturday could be mistaken for a day in some season other than summer. Not with the vivid intensity of the sunshine, only 15 days from reaching its annual peak at the summer solstice.
But as a summer day, in a venue that can rightfully boast of its achievements in both heat and humidity, the heat index on Saturday seemed only an afterthought. The index, of course, combines heat and humidity to describe what conditions actually felt like.
Failure to disclose the actual index might arouse suspicions that it was being kept under wraps, so that it would not impair accounts of the overall affability of the day. But such dark thoughts would not seem to be soundly supported.
Throughout the late afternoon, during the hours when the index was provided, it never reached 90 in Washington. It rarely exceeded the actual temperature by more than a degree. It appeared to peak at 89 just before 3 p.m.
A haze hung over the city for much of the day. It seemed to be the standard haze of a summer day. Perhaps it may also have partially represented a pyrotechnical haze. It may have owed something to the faint but lingering remnants of Friday’s fireworks, still hovering in the early morning air.
The National Weather Service noted the presence of smoke in the air in the first hours after midnight. Then haze was observed in the morning. In the afternoon, haze may have persisted, softening the views of the trees and clouds found near the horizon.
But the haze may go with the territory. The days of fondly recollected summer, in the words of at least one popular song, are not only lazy, which is understandable, but also hazy.
A Nat King Cole album from 1963 that had the title of “ Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer.
Regarding craziness, Saturday's official hourly weather observations made no mention.
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