Heading to the Hundreds

Triple-Digit Temperatures Possible, but Cooler Air Ahead

By Darragh Johnson, Delphine Schrank (Contact)

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

You thought yesterday was bad?

Today could be worse. A lot worse.

Oh, the air might feel a little less steamy. But the westerly winds that promise to dry things out also might heat things up. And up.

Compare: By midafternoon Tuesday, temperatures were a mere 94 at Reagan National Airport. The air, though, felt like it was 103.

Today, the National Weather Service office in Sterling is predicting that it could actually be 103; a more optimistic AccuWeather, which supplies information for The Washington Post's weather map, is shooting for a relatively cool 98.

One thing they do agree on is that a measure of relief is on the way. Temperatures are expected to remain in the 90s throughout the week but will moderate slowly.

“By Saturday, there will be much cooler air,” National Weather Service meteorologist Luis Rosa said. And by “cooler,” he means temperatures with “highs in the upper 80s.”

Tuesday's heat was record-breaking at Dulles International Airport.

The temperature at Dulles reached 97 degrees at 2:36 p.m. The previous record on Tuesday's date was 95 degrees set in 1968, according to weather service records.

The weather service issued a heat advisory in effect from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday with the high expected to reach 101 degrees in Loudoun, forecasters said.

A temperature of 101 degrees would make it the warmest day of 2007 at Dulles. The warmest day so far this year was this past Saturday, when the high reached 98 degrees.

The heat index Wednesday could surge to 106 degrees. The average high at Dulles on today's date is 87 degrees, according to weather service records.

The heat also altered the training camp schedule of the Redskins in Ashburn.

Photo: John McDonnell

Members of the Redskins offensive line take a water break during sweltering heat in Ashburn.

Coach Joe Gibbs cut the Tuesday morning practice to 75 minutes because of the intense heat, and then cut the afternoon session back to an hour with forecasts for a soaring heat index.

By 5 p.m. it was relatively cool with a nice breeze, but the schedule had already been set. "We tried to outguess Mother Nature, and we missed," Gibbs said.

Tuesday was a day when the simple act of breathing was kind of dangerous.

The day was a bookend of Code Orange alerts, meaning that, during the morning and afternoon rush hours, the air quality was deemed unhealthy for sensitive groups - children, older adults or people with respiratory or heart ailments. At midday, though, the air quality improved somewhat to “moderate,” meaning it looked unhealthy only for those who are, Jen Desimone with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments said, “really, really sensitive.”

For those who are really, really, really sensitive, Dr. Ronald Bortnick, medical director and vice president of medical affairs for Southern Maryland Hospital Center, had a prescription for the most effective remedy, better even than staying indoors all day:

“Hopping on a plane to Maine right now would be the best thing,” he said.

Such advice, though, was of little help to kids and others - sensitive or not - across Northern Virginia:

Instead of heading out on a “cows and corn” field trip to learn the mechanics of farming, about 200 elementary schoolers in Loudoun County summer camps were stuck inside classrooms making arts and crafts projects. Elsewhere in the county, athletic trainers spun ball-like devices first thing in the morning to monitor the heat and humidity index. The verdict: 105 degrees.

All football, cross-country and band practices were moved indoors - but too late for a student at Park View High School in Sterling who passed out at morning band practice from a combination of heat and fatigue, according to Wayde B. Byard, Loudoun schools spokesman.

Aziz Hasan, 64, who collects tolls at the Spring Hill Road exit from the Dulles Toll Road, had a mini-air conditioner set on “high cool” Tuesday during his 1:30 to 9:30 p.m. shift. But the heat still swamped his booth through the open toll window. So during his hour-long break, he said, he usually retreats to his car and turns that air conditioning on full blast, too.

Tuesday's heat seemed to slow everything down - and sometimes stop it. AAA Mid-Atlantic noted that it received a whopping 3,649 phone calls Tuesday from motorists seeking emergency roadside assistance. “Looks like if we keep up this pace, we might break yesterday's record” of 25 percent higher than the average summer's day, said John B. Townsend, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Among the calls from stranded motorists, 44 percent were for towing, 23 percent were failures to start, and 15 percent - “this shocks everybody” - were for blown tires, Townsend said.

In the District, Metro trains were ordered to operate no faster than 45 mph, although they can typically reach speeds up to 59 mph. Track inspectors were watching for kinks or bending of the steel rails, which can be caused by excessive heat.

LoudounExtra.com staff and Washington Post staff writers Virgil Dickson, Omar Fekeiki, Jenna Johnson, Jason La Canfora, Mariana Minaya, Amy Orndorff, Lena H. Sun, Martin Weil and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.

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