Afternoon Update

What a wonderful spring-like day for my first official afternoon update! After a gloomy morning (and perhaps some gloom about the success of some max temperature forecasts!), the mid-February sun has warmed the air up very nicely. Driving home from some errands, I had to turn off the heat, take my jacket off, open the windows, and turn some Van Morrison up loud on the CD player. Here on the Greater Potomac weather patio, the temperature is 63.5 in the shade of the picnic table. Temperatures around the DC area are mostly in the low-to-mid 60's, with National at 60 and Dulles at 62. The warm spot in Northern Virginia is a sunny 70 at Fredericksburg. In Maryland, Baltimore is 61, but a SE breeze is keeping Annapolis at 47. Ocean and bay breezes are also keeping Patuxent River and Ocean City at 52, despite partly-sunny to sunny skies. For some more thoughts on the effect of the sun on our weather, see my previous extended comment.

As Josh mentioned earlier, we can expect a strong cold front to bring temperatures back to more seasonable levels by late tomorrow.