Saturday afternoon provided respite for weather-weary Washingtonians and visitors to the capital area, capping a month filled with record-breaking temperatures and severe squalls that left hundreds of thousands without power.
People lunched outdoors, rode bikes, and even played a little mid-day street hockey outside of the White House.
Patrick Garland of Seattle, sitting on a bench in Lafayette Square across from the home of the first family, said he was probably going to rent a bicycle to do some sightseeing.
“Arlington cemetery was wonderful – it was very humbling,” he said.
But the last day of July capped a month of brutal heat. As of press time, D.C. was trending toward tying the all-time highest monthly temperature average for July of 83.1 degrees, set in 1993.
More rain could be on the way as well; there’s a 60 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms Sunday, according to Calvin Meadows, a meteorological technician with the National Weather Service. And temperatures are expected to creep back up into the low 90s by next week.
Last Sunday’s brutal storms wreaked havoc throughout the region, with local leaders demanding answers from Pepco as many customers waited for days for their power to be restored. The company reported less than 200 total outages in the District, Montgomery County, and Prince George’s County late Saturday, down from a high of more than 300,000.
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