On the one hand, Bartley said, he’s tired — his running schedule fell through a bout with covid a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, the Rock ‘n’ Roll half-marathon is less than a month away, and it’s hard to imagine a better time to run in February.
Thursday’s temperature will eventually hit 81 degrees, breaking the daily record for Feb. 23 of 78 degrees, which the city set in 1874. It’s the second earliest of the year it’s been above 80 degrees. in the nation’s capital. People in DC spent it jogging, walking, picnicking, looking for early Cherry Blossoms, skipping work, working outside, and basking under the sun on the National Mall – some with colorful snow hand cone.
But it got off to a slow start, with a chill in the air and the sun still hidden behind clouds, casting a light yellow hue over the Lincoln Memorial. Bartley pushed himself off the steps and ran.
A few steps away, an eighth grader from North Carolina put his hands on his hips and gave his own version of Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have A Dream” speech, with his rendition focused on the remodeling of his middle school.
His classmates, in town from North Carolina, laughed and cheered. A school administrator, Charlesa Peoples, filmed her student responding to the slow trickle of runners and tourists from the historic perch. He said it was the school’s first trip to DC since the pandemic.
Below them, two ducks float in the corner of the Reflecting Pool, which is usually drained for winter cleaning. It’s almost 9 am and approximately 63 degrees. Cool enough for a jacket, warm enough to hope for a summer-like day.
At that time, Danielle Detz, a 32-year-old in town from Boston for a work trip, arrived at the Tidal Basin expecting to see the first Cherry Blossoms of the year. He said he woke up early on Thursday because he heard that the famous flowers might have bloomed due to the unseasonal weather.
However, Detz found the common branches to be unremarkable. He visited Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, stopped in front of an inscription that read:
Make a career of humanity, commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You can make yourself a bigger person, a bigger country in your country, and a better world to live in.
“I like it,” he said, wearing a teal puffer coat. “It’s about your purpose in life and making the most of your time.”
Detz said he plans to look for the best place to work outside, saying, “That’s better than my hotel room.”
Across the city, residents are similarly thinking about how to make the most of the sunshine. Some government employees decided to meet at the Mall and throw frisbees in their suits. Some set up work stations from home on their patios. Friends schedule afternoon pickleball games at a Southwest recreation center. A community activist advertises a rooftop happy hour night called, “Act Like It’s Summer.
Around 11 a.m., the sun broke through the clouds, showering the cobblestone streets of Capitol Hill with a new warmth. Locals shed their layers and order their iced coffees.
By noon, the sky was clear and the thermometer was 73 degrees. A woman roller skates around Lincoln Park, wearing a pink helmet, pink knee pads and pink arm bands. A few steps away, small children slide before trying and failing to walk back down it.
A dog named Bonnie, half Australian Shepherd and half Blue Heeler, basks in the sun, her tongue flicking in the air.
He wandered past groups of families picnicking in the park, closely followed by his owners, Morgan Mahoney, 26, and Mikey Shepard, 28.
Mahoney and Shepard, both in the middle of work, spent the morning walking around Capitol Hill, amazed by the heat and also concerned about it.
“In my subconscious, I was like, ‘Oh this is bad,'” Mahoney said. “But I think I will enjoy the benefits of climate change.”
Shepard added: “Yeah, it’s the positive we’re going to get in the next 20 years. It’s pretty dark. I’m glad it’s 80 degrees, but I’d like it to be May or April. February is too soon.”
The couple decided to allow themselves to enjoy the February heat as a kind of consolation prize. They went back to their apartment to let Bonnie catch her breath, while they enjoyed a few glasses of wine.
Nearby, a group of children between 3- and 9-years-old lined up under the Emancipation Memorial in central Lincoln Park. They held hands, sweaty from the intense game of hide and seek.
“I can run and walk with my eyes closed,” one boy told his teacher, Akilah Johnson, 22.
“Really?” he answered. “As long as you don’t get hurt or fall.”
The boy continued to spin around, tripping in the dirt before catching himself and grinning.
Johnson took the kids — all enrolled in a science camp for D.C. public school students over February break — on a particularly long walk at noon Thursday. He hoped that the exercise would help release their excess energy that he had noticed when they arrived that morning. They were excited, he said, to wear shorts for the first time in months.
But the bright playground has students clamoring for more. Now, they asked him if they could have recess before lunch instead of after.
For some, 80 degrees in February is troubling, a sign of our dangerously changing climate. At the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, a man named Wilfredo Dubon cuts the tree tops. He studied the branches, worried that the red leaves breaking off the tops of the elm trees were a sign that the spring leaves would bloom soon this year.
Below him, the sculpture garden ice rink was empty and melting, closed all day because of the weather.
But it also brings scenes of relaxation and renewal. A man on the National Mall films a woman leading an exercise class, which culminates in a seven-part stretching series. A father shows his daughter how to fly a kite. Friends throw a football.
I sat with them on my mom’s old picnic blanket, thankful for a task that would find the most joy on this misguided summer day. My rainbow snow cone melted, slowly at first and then quickly, as the sun grew stronger and the temperature reached 78 degrees.