Winter Will Come Again, We Promise

December will be here again, even though on a day like today (and alas, worse tomorrow), it feels as if summer is endless and relentless. Today the thermometer will reach into the mid or upper 90's; tomorrow it's going to be even hotter.

Excessive heat is dangerous. And the precautions are pretty much the same as for a tornado or hurricane: seek shelter indoors.

On days when the heat is soaring, you can also do your part for the community to prevent the electrical grid from stressing out (which is a kind way of saying, help Pepco's fragile electric grid from failing) by waiting until the evening to run your major appliances, such as your dishwasher. Press the off button on your computer's monitor when you take a lunch break. Turning the lights out when they aren't needed helps, too. In other words, if it has an off-switch, use that off-switch.

During heat waves the air quality deteriorates. Code Orange is coming, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a Code Red day. The high pressure system that's the cause of this very unpleasant heat also traps bad air.  If you can't drive less --and fewer cars help a lot-- tell your yard company to put off using their gas powered leaf blowers until the mercury is at least back to the milder 80's. Leaf blowers contribute significantly to local air pollution.

The poll we ran a couple of weeks ago showed that Washingtonians are evenly split when it comes to winter versus summer. Does anyone who voted for winter want to change their vote today?

Meanwhile, we wanted to share some nostalgia for winter in Washington.

Washington Tweets: Special Heatwave Edition

Antarctia photo by Bill Adler

Washington tweets. A lot. The Washington Tweets column is a collection of the most interesting, recent Washington-area tweets. These tweets reveal a candid and fascinating portrait of what is on our collective minds: Twitter gives a snapshot of what we're doing, thinking and hoping for as a group. Washington Tweets is Washington in the raw. Bill Adler tweets at @billadler.

Washington Tweets is usually published on Monday, but this is a special heatwave edition of Washington Tweets. Why a special edition? Because we'll deploy any excuse to stay indoors in air conditioning.

Summer (and it's not even summer yet), how do we love thee? Not so much according to a poll on All Life Is Local. Fifty percent of Washingtonians prefer winter to summer. Consider: half of us would rather shovel snow than deal with the heat and humidity. That says a lot about how unkind May through September can be here.


Really DC? Heat advisory, air quality alert, AND high pollen levels? Why not just punch us all in the face and get it over with??

DC weather reporters, correct terminology is "97, but feels like 'being slowly lowered face first into a steam tray of mashed potatoes.'"

there's a heat advisory today in DC til 8pm n my new tattoos arent ready for submersion n water

It's so hot on this train the tourists are about to spontaneously burst into flames!

7:00...76 degrees, humidity is 2,428 percent, and there is a heat advisory for DC. Can we move the nation's capital to Winnipeg?

I absolutely hate #DC weather in the summer

Up again for another day in the blistering heat of DC.. bring it!! Leaving tomorrow :(

anything blizzard sounds nice about now. DC is around 105 on the heat index today...

woke up to a text from the DC government about a heat advisory warning till 8pm. FML.

Hot: 7 DC Ambulances Out Of Service In Extreme Heat

Hate the DC heat? Imagine what it must have been like in 1925- 100 degrees in early June, 25 years before air conditioners!

Heat wave in DC causes power outages. Crazy huh?

Finished run yesterday in the 90 degree heat and found myself muttering to myself afterwards...Soooo hot in DC

So the power out in parts if DC because of the ....... heat? Really!!??!!?? Explain...

It's 90 degrees in my apartment because brick holds heat. 79 out, but already sticky. And pollen-y.

No 8's or 9's Forecast

Thermometer photo from July 6, 2010

The thermometer is expected to peak only in the upper 70's between now and Sunday. More than any other sign --and especially this summer-- when there are no 80 or 90 degree days, that means autumn is surely on its way. Or at the very least, the ability to bring ice cream home from the store without it turning into soup. While there's often little that Washingtonians can agree on, I think that we can all agree that as far as this summer is concerned, good riddance! For the complete forecast, visit the Weather Underground and the Capital Weather Gang. And maybe, just maybe, the 90's are all over with until next summer.

Is It News? DC Switches to Celsius to Cope With Heat

In an emergency effort to reduce electricity consumption during this extraordinarily hot summer, the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments will be making all future weather announcements and forecasts in Celsius rather than Fahrenheit, Maxine Roberts, WMCOG spokesperson announced today.

This is the hottest summer in 50 years and electricity use is at an all-time high.  "By converting to Celsius, people will perceive a lower temperature and not feel like they have to turn their air conditioning up so high," Roberts said.  "97F is 37.1C, for example.  Even 90F, which often feels hot, especially if you're a transplant from New Hampshire, is only 32.2 Celsius.  'Mind over matter' matters when it comes to heat and humidity.  Everyone here knows that visualizing icebergs, thinking about cool waterfalls, and seeing a lower thermometer reading in your mind's eye is all you need to feel better in this heat."