On this date in 1936, a bolt of lightning struck the 315-foot tower of the Old Post Office building, “causing it to burst into flames,” the front page of The Washington Post reported the next day. “The blaze, leaping from the most familiar structure in the downtown skyline, fascinated thousands of persons on rain-swept Pennsylvania avenue,” The Post wrote. A hose was hoisted more than 300 feet from the street to extinguish the fire and serious damage was averted.
The lightning strike, one of many in the area, came during a storm that dumped a calendar-day record 2.41 inches of rain. The torrents led to flooding that stranded vehicles and inundated cellars. “Many trees” were felled by the storm, The Post said.
Here are other notables from this day:
- Average high: 74
- Average low: 54
- Record high: 91 (1965)
- Record low: 36 (1909)
- Record rainfall: 2.41 inches (1936)
