Sunny, Seasonable Supplants Skimpy Showers

Now

Sunny, breezy. Following a midnight high of 64°, temperatures have trended generally downward today with the help of the early-morning passage of a cold front, but by mid afternoon they were still near the seasonal average in the mid 50s. With the arrival of a reinforcing shot of cold air, readings should be a little cooler tomorrow.

Despite yesterday's gloominess, rainfall amounts through this morning in the immediate metro area were nearly all less than 0.25", but higher toward the north and west. (The middle shade of blue in most of the western suburbs represents 0.10-0.25", while the District itself and points east are generally less than 0.10".)

Precipitation chart through 7am this morning from NWS Precipitation Analysis

Tonight and Tomorrow

Mostly clear, cool. Breezes will diminish tonight under clear skies with lows ranging from the mid 30s in the city to the upper 20s and low 30s in the 'burbosphere. Tomorrow will be sunny and a little cooler, with highs 48-51°.

For the outlook through the rest of the week, scroll on down to Matt's post below.

Blogospheric Climate

The NYTi's Andrew Revkin reported in his DotEarth blog yesterday on the controversy surrounding the linguistic license used by Dr. James Hansen in his choice of metaphors for describing the consequences of global warming. David Roberts also has some extended comments at Gristmill. Dr. Hansen was one of the first scientists to publicly raise the issue of the policy implications of climate change.

SciAm has just started a new online feature called "Clash", which explores the policy issues related to various scientific topics. The inaugural posting discusses the question, "What Will Climate Change Cost Us?", with economist Sir Nicholas Stern, author Bjorn Lomborg, and a lead IPCC author Gary Yohe.