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D.C.-area forecast: Sunny and delightful today and tomorrow; burst of summer by Friday

By
May 17, 2022 at 5:00 a.m. EDT
Clouds and blue skies at the Smithsonian Castle on Monday. (Jeanette Cook/Flickr)
2 min

Today’s daily digit

A somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of 0 to 10.

10/10: Probably a 9.5 due to occasional wind gusts. But superb sunshine and low humidity, so rounding it up to a 10.

Express forecast

  • Today: Sunny, low humidity, breezy. Highs: 76-80.
  • Tonight: Clear, calming winds. Lows: 51-55.
  • Tomorrow: Mostly sunny, dry, minimal breeze. Highs: 73-77.

Forecast in detail

We need to move these next two days of mild sunshine and low humidity to the weekend. Showers are likely to zip through the area Wednesday night into early Thursday. South winds then get the summer-like heat going on Friday and Saturday bringing our first taste of 90s. A cold front comes to our rescue on Sunday, but could first spark some showers and storms.

Today (Tuesday): The storms are long gone and nothing but blue skies are on tap. West winds are a bit breezy at times with some gusts around 25-30 mph. Highs are mainly in the upper 70s to near 80 and humidity is comfortably low. Confidence: High

Tonight: The nearly full moon is on display with clear skies through the night. Winds calm and lows slip to the low to mid-50s. Confidence: High

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Tomorrow (Wednesday): Low humidity, plenty of sun, and barely a breeze are pretty close to perfection. Highs in the mid-70s are the icing on the cake! Clouds could increase by late afternoon. Confidence: High

Tomorrow night: Clouds thicken and scattered showers are likely as the evening progresses. Lows drop to the upper 50s to lower 60s. Confidence: Medium-High

A look ahead

Clouds are hard to shake on Thursday with a few showers and a thunderstorm possible. Highs still manage to warm to the upper 70s to lower 80s. Skies do clear overnight with lows in the low to mid-60s. Confidence: Medium

Summer sneaks in Friday and Saturday with highs reaching at least near 90 on Friday, and potentially the low to mid-90s on Saturday, with lows in the upper 60s to lower 70s. Humidity is still not oppressive but enough to be noticeable. Skies are mostly sunny but an isolated shower or thunderstorm could pop up on Saturday afternoon. Confidence: Medium-High

Timing is everything on Sunday as a cold front pushes in. A late arrival and we hit the upper 80s and could see some strong storms. But as of now an earlier arrival is favored with a few scattered showers and highs in the lower 80s. Confidence: Low-Medium