Temperatures Near 100 Expected for Days in Region
By Michael E. Ruane and Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, July 17, 2006
Tony Brumley looked wilted. His face was crimson and dappled with perspiration. His wife, Colleen, looked parched. So did the kids, Daniel and Isabelle. And when Brumley rested the palm of his hand on the sun-baked granite of the National World War II Memorial yesterday, he yanked it back.
"Ow," he said. That was hot, too.
As the Brumleys, from Novi, Mich., and other tourists on the Mall discovered, the Washington area is predicted to plunge into its fiercest summer heat in four years.
After a June that had record rain and water seemingly everywhere, the National Weather Service issued heat advisories yesterday for the District, Arlington County, Alexandria, Falls Church, Baltimore and parts of Maryland's Eastern Shore. Forecasters said the region will have searing temperatures near 100, heat indexes well over 100 and probably no break through the weekend.
The cause is a vast high-pressure system that has baked much of the nation and is drifting out over the ocean. The heat and humidity should soar today, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, creating potentially hazardous conditions. Air quality is forecast to be at unhealthy levels for people in sensitive groups, including children, the elderly and those with heart or respiratory ailments.
The weather service urged people who go outside to drink plenty of fluids, try to stay out of the sun and never leave a child or pet unattended in a vehicle, even with the windows open.
The high today is forecast to be around 100. The heat index -- a combined measure of heat and humidity that is supposed to reflect how it feels -- could reach 102. Tomorrow's high should be about 98, but higher humidity could push the index to 106.
Today and tomorrow are expected to be Code Orange days for air quality because of higher ozone levels, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
This probably will be the longest and hottest local heat wave since summer 2002, when the mercury hit 95 or higher for eight straight days in mid-August, according to weather service meteorologist Roger Smith.
Because of the heat advisory, the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles planned to open its inspection center, at 1001 Half St. SW, an hour earlier and close five hours earlier than usual. Spokeswoman Janice Hazel said the special hours at the outdoor facility, 5 a.m. to 1 p.m., will be used through Wednesday. Other DMV service centers, which are indoors, will maintain their usual hours.
In the District, on days when the heat index reaches 95 degrees, street showers will be opened across the city, public swimming pool hours will be extended to 9 p.m. and electric fans will be provided to vulnerable low-income residents.
In addition, cooling centers will be opened in senior citizen facilities, city government buildings and other locations.
Kenneth McCracken, operations supervisor at the D.C. Emergency Management Agency, said yesterday that it is "more than likely" that the heat emergency plan will be implemented early this week, given the forecast. Authorities will decide each morning whether the temperature warrants the extra measures, he said.
Many suburbs don't have such extensive plans because air conditioning is so widely available.
"We encourage folks, if they need to cool off, to use places normally open to the public: libraries, malls, things like that," said Debra Bianchi, a spokeswoman for Fairfax County.
Mary Anderson, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County, said free electric fans are available for low-income residents who call the county's Senior Information and Assistance unit at 240-777-3000.
"We don't generally get a lot of requests for them, but they're certainly available," Anderson said. "They're for people if they're in need."
Although it will be hot, temperatures are not expected to exceed all-time highs. "I hope we don't break these records," said Smith, of the weather service.
For today's date, the record high at Reagan National Airport is 102, set in 1980, he said. Tomorrow's record is 103, set in 1887.
Smith noted that the sun, only a few weeks past the summer solstice, remains at a high angle in the sky and produces more than 14 hours of sunlight -- a long time for the day to heat up.
On the Mall yesterday, despite a pleasant breeze, the temperature eased toward the low 90s. "It's terrible in the sun," Roger Yost, 77, of Clermont, Fla., said as he maneuvered his electric scooter into some shade at the World War II Memorial.
But the Brumleys, of Michigan, were coping. "You drink a lot of fluids," said Tony Brumley, 40, "and the breeze, when it comes, feels nice."
"I like it, myself," said Colleen Brumley, 44. "It's summer. It's how it's supposed to be."
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