Among the most striking features of Saturday’s weather in D.C. was the noteworthy extent to which it seemed to duplicate the conditions seen here Friday, in terms of wind, clouds, and warmth, of shadow and of sunshine.
But Saturday seemed unusual, at least in part, in the degree to which it reproduced conditions in the capital on Friday. Consider, for example, the temperatures of the two days.
On Saturday, the high temperature was 57 degrees, and the low was 41. Such readings deviated only by the smallest amount from Friday, when the high was also 57 but the morning low was a degree less at 40.
Then compare the winds. Both were windy days. And almost identically so. Saturday scored higher in wind measurements but by an amount that seemed minimal.
As of 5 p.m., Saturday’s strongest wind had arrived from the northwest at 28 mph. Friday’s strongest was 25, from the same direction. Perhaps one would need to be a human anemometer to detect the difference.
To further emphasize the similarities, on both days, as of 5 p.m. Saturday, the peak gust measured at an identical 38 mph.
In addition, both days had massive collections of clouds swimming above, sometimes seeming as dense as stone. Other times, their lines swirled and bent in many sorts of seldom seen curves. They billowed in places, and streaked the sky in other places.
Their colors frequently seemed describable only in shades of gray, but at times, as bright patches of blue sky opened, they looked as white as laundered sheets hung to dry in the breezes of each day.
With all its clouds, Saturday in D.C. continued to raise questions about how much of the coming solar eclipse will be visible here.
From seeing how often the sun shone on Saturday, it seemed as if a fair response might be that it depends.
A National Weather Service forecast said Monday, overall, would be mostly sunny.
But a forecast for the hour of maximum eclipse, between 3 and 4 p.m. indicated that the sky would be almost half covered by cloud.
As far as guidance for Monday goes, Saturday seemed to show that even during largely cloudy hours, the sun may still shine unobstructed.
Or can be seen through thin spots in whatever clouds may be covering it.
