What’s that big bright thing up there in the sky?
After nearly a week of constant rainfall I looked out the window this morning to see a large, bright object in the sky. Now what could that be? Oh… wait… I remember that. It’s called the… (hmmm) Oh yes! The Sun!
The rainfall out here has been literally record-breaking. WTOP News out here in DC has this to say on the matter:
For the second day in a row, enough rain fell to break records for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles International Airport.
On Monday, 4.22 inches of rain fell in Washington, breaking the old record of 2.62 inches set in 1942 for June 26. At Dulles, 1.92 inches fell, breaking the 1978 record of 1.91 inches.
Sunday’s 5.19 inches of rain set a new Washington record for June 25, breaking a record of 1.6 inches set in 1871. Monday’s rains also broke records for Dulles and Baltimore. At Dulles 5.94 inches fell, breaking the record of 1.66 inches set in 1975. At BWI, 2.75 inches of rain fell. The old Baltimore record was 1.95 inches set in 1872.
Since Thursday, National has received 10.27 inches of rain. For the year, 23.99 inches of rain have fallen, giving Washington a surplus for the year of 4.83 inches.
At Dulles, there’s a surplus of 1.38 inches. Of Dulles’ 21.75 inches of rain this year, 9.37 inches has fallen since Thursday.
This time last week I was listening to a report about how the rainfall deficit was making for possible wildfire conditions since the wooded areas were so dry. Guess that got handled. I’ve seen some of my neighbor’s yards turned into creekbeds from the rainfall and one of them lost a tree that simply fell over. And it’s not over yet.
One of the things about this kind of rainfall is that the water that fell upstream in creeks and rivers doesn’t all just flow down immediately. The rising water takes time to reach spots downstream and that’s what’s happening right now in Maryland. In Rockville, MD the authorities have performed a mandatory evacuation of an area near Rock Creek Park due the dam at Lake Needlewood showing signs of potential failure. At 25 feet above normal, the lake could put roads in the area under 6 feet of water should the dam fail.
DC has declared a state of emergency and the federal government is offering unscheduled leave to government employees.
Hopefully, the weather pattern will normalize a bit and allow the water to run off before hitting us again. It’s summer in the DC area, however, and “normalized” usually includes afternoon “pop-up” thunderstorms. We’ll have to see.
