DC: Dehydration City

Now

Mostly sunny, hot, humid. Weather news hasn't taken a holiday for Columbus Day. The record heat was a factor in yesterday's Army Ten-Miler, although not as major as in Chicago, where the Marathon was shut down early.

In a repetition of a familiar pattern recently, however, this morning's haze and mist kept the noon temperature over 10° below yesterday's. On the other hand, by 4pm the 91° at Dulles had broken the record there by 6°, and several other regional reporting locations, including downtown Baltimore at 92°, had reached or exceeded 90° again. National had at least tied the record with 88°. At this point, we are only 3 days from the latest 90° ever recorded in Washington, on the 11th in 1919.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Very warm, humid. Tonight will again be warm and humid with lows in the upper 60s downtown to the low 60s in the 'burbs. Some morning clouds and fog will give way to mainly sunny skies in the afternoon tomorrow with highs near record levels at 86-91°. There is a very slight (20%) chance of afternoon showers or thunderstorms.

For the outlook through the rest of the week and into the weekend, scroll on down to Dan's post below.

Tropical Topics

The National Hurricane Center is watching an area of storminess in the northwestern Caribbean, but a reconnaissance flight was canceled today and tentatively rescheduled for tomorrow.

The WaPo science three-quarter page today features the experimental Aerosonde technology for investigating the lowest levels of a tropical storm more safely and more economically than by manned aircraft.

Image © Aerosonde Pty Ltd

Political Science

Yesterday's WaPo Outlook section gave the entire front page above-the-fold space to an op-ed by Bjorn Lomborg, "Chill Out", on the subject of climate change policy. "Who is Bjorn Lomborg?": The misinformation watchdog group Media Matters addressed this question when Lomborg was featured in the WaPo last spring. The scientific accuracy of Lomborg's recent book, "Cool It", was discussed in a WaPo review last month. For more analysis of Lomborg's credibility, including the filing of formal scientific dishonesty charges, see the critiques of climate scientists and a Danish biologist. Many of the (as of last count, 176) online comments to the piece are quite instructive, as well.