DC's Dry July

Images (click to enlarge): July month-to-date precipitation percentage of average from National Weather Service; CapitalClimate chart from National Weather Service data, photo © Kevin Ambrose

See here for more Washington, DC weather records.

It's the kind of record that can be wiped out in an hour with an afternoon downpour, but Washington, DC is going into the last third of July with a record low rainfall total. The 0.26" of precipitation at Washington National is well below the current record of 0.82" which has stood since 1872. Only one other July has seen a monthly precipitation amount under 1"; that was in 1966, when 0.93" fell. Other regional locations have been similarly dry:

Washington Dulles 0.09"
Baltimore (BWI)   0.42"
Salisbury MD      0.17" 
Hagerstown MD     0.77"  
Wallops Island VA 0.66" 

As the map at the top shows, a few areas in the region have had less than 5% of the normal monthly precipitation to date.