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Friday alone might not have been enough to assure us that Washington can be hot, but our dryness makes it tolerable.

Friday, however, did seem to score on three meteorological dimensions: the presence of heat, the absence of humidity and what seemed an overall sense of physical comfort.

On the 21st of April, only a third of the way through spring, our 88 degrees may have seemed thermal precocity, an unsought rush to summer.

Friday failed by only a degree to match Washington’s April 21 record. Its high exceeded the day’s average by 18 degrees.

April has been abnormally warm but also dry. The seeming exile of moisture from Friday may have struck the sentimental as nature’s apology for making it so hot so soon.

But if April’s dryness is not yet withering, may we not ask: whither April’s celebrated showers? Washington has had less than half its average amount of April rain, and Dulles International Airport is nearly two inches below average. However, nine days remain to meet the needs of May flowers.

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