On this date in 2006, a calendar-day record 5.19 inches of rain fell, only to be followed by another 4.22 inches the next day, also a record. Widespread flooding ensued and a state of emergency was declared in D.C. High water inundated the basements of federal buildings, closed countless roads and even triggered a mudslide that shut down the Capital Beltway and Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Numerous stranded motorists required high water rescues.
The floods “swamped homes and highways, closed several federal buildings in Washington and forced some people to swim for their lives,” The Washington Post reported on June 26. Several deaths were attributed to the event.
By June 28, D.C. had received 13.47 inches from the event and registered its highest four-day rainfall on record, and also clinched its wettest June.
"This amount of rain in four days should occur once every 200 years, and we just lived through it," Jim Lee, the meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service in Sterling, Virginia, told The Post.
Here are other notables from this day:
- Average high: 88
- Average low: 70
- Record high: 100 (1997)
- Record low: 53 (1902)
- Record rainfall: 5.19 inches (2006)
