A few weeks ago, days after one of those lethal summer storms had raged through Northwest D.C., we heard a loud pop on our normally quiet street in Chevy Chase. Sounded like a very powerful firecracker. My daughter stuck her head out of the front door, heard another loud crack and saw flames flashing from the power line at the corner of McKinley and 32nd streets.
The wires had essentially exploded.
Within minutes firetrucks had arrived and police came to block the intersection and string the familiar yellow tape. Neighbors gathered. Nothing new here. We had gotten used to the blocked corner since another storm had lopped off the top of an oak tree and sent it — and sparking wires — crashing into the street.
What a fitting climax to one of the hottest and meanest summers we Washingtonians have suffered in decades. Let’s dub it the Summer From Hades, both because it broke records for heat and because it fits the mythical Greek definition of hell, the underworld and home of the dead.
Heading into Labor Day weekend, we deserve a lift. We Washingtonians are used to heat in July and August. We know we inhabit what was once a swamp. Walking from an air conditioned building on an August day can feel like stepping into a room full of damp, hot cotton. Some of us tolerate it better than others.
But this summer tested even the most tolerant. The heat of 2010 brought us the warmest spring, most warm June, tied for the hottest July. We suffered through the hottest three months of summer on record by 1.3 degrees. We sweated through more days over 90 degrees than any summer in history.
And it was dry — until the downpours flooded our streets and homes.
The Shenandoah Valley is experiencing the worst drought in decades. Fields are brown, corn stalks are gray, rivers are down to the rocks. Virginia issued a drought watch for Clarke County, just over the mountain from Loudoun.
No drought in D.C. The destructive storms that tore through the metropolitan area gave new meaning to microweather. The winds and rains would topple trees in Chevy Chase and spare Spring Valley, a few miles west. Water flooded basements from Silver Spring to Anacostia, if they were in the storm’s path.
We got no relief from sports. Stephen Strasburg, the young fire baller who threw strikes at 100 miles per hour, got a bum elbow and will miss a season after surgery. Donovan McNabb, the quarterback that Redskins owner Dan Snyder hoped might help get his team to the playoffs, came up lame after an exhibition game. He might miss the season opener against the Dallas Cowboys.
And now we have Hurricane Earl barreling up the East Coast. Earl could wash out our Labor Day weekend fun, but let’s hope for the best: Maybe the storm will wipe away a summer of heat and bring us up from Hades.
We deserve a lift.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
