At the beginning of August, I started contributing to a weather email newsletter created by people who care about cultivating climate justice called Currently; the collective is founded and led by Eric Holthaus— author of Future Earth, The Phoenix, and plenty of other climate writing galvanizing folks like me to steward a safer climate future. I’m splitting coverage for the DMV’s local weather updates with another great writer in the area every few weeks.
For me, our weather has always been the most important story of our time. I remember back in the 90s “how’s the weather these days? “ was treated as awkward smalltalk the nerdy character would cling to on dates in TV sitcoms. As if asking about the weather was something small and inconsequential— and not, in reality, an expression of the defining challenge of our time: getting through our days, and getting through our climate changed era together. I’m proud to be a part of a project to elevate and answer questions that ask not only “how’s the weather these days?” but also “WHY’s the weather these days?” “HOW do we weather these days” and “how will we make our climate better together TODAY?”
Here’s more about the project:
Currently is a weather service in the era of climate change
Currently is a free subscription weather service — delivering daily weather poetry to your inbox, and connecting you with interactive weather alerts and real-time climate context straight to your phone. We’re a community of people sharing resources and delivering justice, hope, safety, and resilience in a world in urgent need of systemic action.
Follow your nearest city’s Currently forecast here. For following me on my climate blog here, I’ll round-up my DC poem forecasts regularly for your convenience.
Monday, August 2nd, 2021
A Mostly Sunny Monday Affirmation
Like Monday’s weather, I am mostly sunny
Even when “mostly” doesn’t apply
Even if there’s a stray cloud, honey
I will breeze through a low of 66F (19C) and an 84F (28C) high
I am strong, stretching like the start of this week
Rays reaching towards getting everything planned
I am affirmed in the District’s sun, sweating goldenrod sweet
And no matter what the week brings, I withstand
I am determined, taking it day by day
Sharing tomorrow’s foresight– Currently
As more join us on our journey to change
With A-New-World-Is-Possible certainty
Wednesday, August 4th, 2021
Wednesday will be cool for a DC August. If you’re out early, an umbrella may be handy as the day starts with a chance of morning showers to break into a partly sunny afternoon with a high of 80°.
Wednesday’s “cool” isn’t just temperature, but also temperament: as if the days of this week gathered together to form a too-cool clique who decline to conform to Augusts’ average high of 87°, what with humidity usually feels in the 90s. Yet even with average August humidity (70%), Wednesday should stay cool.
Stay cool,
Thursday, August 5th, 2021
See our swamp’s summer sun shine-through Thursday and pull back the cloudy curtain this cool week had drawn. Serving mostly sunny and highs back up to 87, Thursday returns to summer sun. Or should we say— summer sun returns to us.
So welcome back to the stage, summer sunshine! Grant us the solar power to power through change. Dance on DC like photons on silicon solar cells. Like a gymnast in the air as the crowd swells. Let’s get that gold medal day.
Friday, August 6th, 2021
You know DC is full of spin, but today’s is some spin on an old saying: “When it suns, temps soar!” Friday will crank the temperature dial upwards, ramping this week’s cool back into the 90s. Enjoy mainly sunny skies with a 70° low and 92° high.
When our swamp warms up again with this stuffier heat, it’s good to have some go-to water on you handy. Even the annuals and perennials will grin your way with thirst this afternoon, after sweating off the morning dew. Giving the ground colorful crowds wavering in want in the steamy sun.
Saturday, August 7th, 2021 (BONUS)
Saturday’s unlikely to get the gold
They’re not likely to medal, we’re told
In their category— compared to yesterday
Expecting lows in mid-60s, breezy 80s high, high humidity
Landing with a cloudfulness, possible thunderstorms with it
But don’t blame them, they’re up against a climate
Of stress, doing their best. In an ongoing pandemic
Just like the Olympics
Up against physic’s limits
With no disrespect to any participant
And no disrespect to the experts and activists
With more glory in collaboration than competition
As impacts expand
From Tokyo, Japan
To Washington, DC:
This is a health and climate emergency.
Monday, August 9th, 2021
A Mostly Sunny Breathing Exercise
Inhale– get your Monday weather. Exhale– and let’s go get a better climate together.
DC’s Monday: mostly sunny, 91°-high keeping heat in, humidity throughout. Evening’s partly cloudy, low of 74°.Breathe in. Now breathe out.
Global climate: mostly dire with a chance of grief and rage. Keep this close to fuel your change.Breath in. Now breathe out.
Fill your lungs, hold it in. Center control over what’s given. For a decarbonized impact.Then release. Now act.
DC’s week expects a breathtaking heat-up.Same with our global climate, so ground yourself in the clean-up.
Tuesday, August 10th, 2021
Tuesday— please remember to HYDRATE.
DC will see more heat AND humidity this week, which you already know’s Not Great.
Muggy swampland temps reach low-to-mid 90s for a 101 heat index; plus afternoon chances of thunderstorms and showers.
Highlighting a parallel parable here, of hydrating and transitioning to sustainable power:
Just like you need to drink plenty of water long before you even feel the thirst to stay hydrated;
we’ve needed to decarbonize long before our climate’s gotten worse to abate it.
We’re water creatures on a water planet with water at risk.
Water’ll it take to stick?
Wednesday, August 11th, 2021
Wednesday’s a scorcher: stiflingly hot mid-to-high 90s and very humid, for a heat index up to 106°. A mix of glaring morning sun and clouds may give way to afternoon/evening scattered thunderstorms and a 70° low.
More heat’s especially dangerous for historically redlined parts of DC because of the Urban Heat Island Effect; because communities surrounded by heat-reflecting concrete freeways and pavement will feel several degrees hotter.
The Urban Heat Island volunteer mapping program shows us which areas in DC are most affected. Let mapped impact guide how we grow the movement for depaving and regreening spaces— for racial, housing, and climate justice.
Thursday, August 12th, 2021
Heat intensifies
Thursday highs
Near 100 degrees
In Washington, DC
With humidity it reels
110 degree heat index feels
Excessive heat warning
With a partly sunny morning
And a partly cloudy eve
In lows of 77 degrees
And if we get any visibility
In the sky you could see
Way past greenhouse gasses
Trapped, sparkling masses
Past the midnight hour:
The Perseid meteor shower
But whether or not clouds let
What we certainly get
Is from ‘round the world to Washington, DC:
This is a climate emergency
Where change is nigh
Heat intensifies.
Friday, August 13th, 2021
High heat and humidity continue to creep-
cross your path this Friday, the 13th:
between a 98° high and 75° low,
afternoon showers and thunderstorms could go
on into evening with precipitation chances
prompted by a cool front advancing
to finally break this week’s humidity curse (“Good Luck?”)
and let-up the oppressive heat we’ve been stuck
but that comes this weekend, so until then hold-on
to water bottles and umbrellas since the future’s not forgone
let go of breaking mirrors or failing to respond to chain letters
when “Bad Luck” is from failing to respond to the climate crisis better.
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Warming regards,
— Adam Powers