Tourists visiting D.C. in the summer know they’re in for a hot time. At least most of them do. One family from Washington state said they weren’t quite expecting Tuesday’s toasting, which felt as hot as 103 degrees considering the humidity.
Eight-year-old Marie Rudasics slumped against a bench in front of the Freer Gallery of Art and slurped a Philadelphia Water Ice. Her parents said she was no longer interested in touring the nation’s capital, and instead wanted to go back to their hotel and swim in the pool.
“We’re not used to humidity anymore,” said Jackie Rudasics.
Cindy Cross, of Albany, Ga., had stopped in the glaring sun along the National Mall to read a map. Her hometown’s high temperatures didn’t make D.C.’s heat much easier to bear, she said.
“We’re over three digits as well down there,” Cross said. “It’s horrible.”
Ruth Garcia, a D.C. worker who ate her lunch on a K Street bench early Tuesday afternoon, said she liked the weather.
“I think it’s great,” she said. “I lived in Florida. This is nothing.”
The day’s breezes helped keep things cool, said David Ger, a newspaper vendor standing in the shade of a large tree at K and 17th streets. Monday was worse, he said, with people walking faster and cutting through traffic to reach air-conditioned buildings as quickly as possible. Tuesday, though, pedestrians seemed more relaxed to him.
“The mood is a little bit upbeat,” he said. “Very good for business.”
Ger said Washington’s weather is great compared with that of Kenya, where he was born.
“It’s always hot, 12 months of the year,” he said. “No seasonal change.”
A group of tourists on the Mall from North Carolina echoed Ger’s sentiment.
“As long as the wind blows, it’s not bad,” said Joan Snipes, of North Carolina, who was visiting museums with four of her grandchildren.
Despite the breeze, though, she said D.C.’s weather was worse than her home state’s. She would have come during a cooler month, but her daughter was at a health conference in the city.
“We had no choice,” she said.
At least one person saw the weather as a respite. Heather Gregory sat on a bench in McPherson Square, reading a newspaper during her lunch break.
“I don’t mind the heat, and it’s thawing me out from working inside,” she said.
The former Texas resident said D.C.’s weather is an improvement from her home state’s.
“I just moved here this summer, and the weather here is so much nicer.”
Temperatures are expected to feel a little more reasonable on Wednesday, with the National Weather Service calling for a high of 93 degrees.
