That gust from the northwest, and the one or more gusts of 50 mph on Feb. 28, were the strongest measured in the District this year.
On the Potomac River, often a picture of placidity, the wind whipped the waters into whitecaps, a common sign of aquatic storminess.
From time to time, the crests of these wavelets rose high enough to topple forward with a splash of foaming white drops.
As of 5 p.m. the day’s peak sustained wind whistled from the northwest at 31 mph. As of that hour, the day’s wind averaged 19 mph overall, which seemed substantial.
It suggested that on Saturday, the mass movement of our air was no atmospheric fad or matter of a single moment.
Depending on hats, hair and hearing, it provided a sonic accompaniment to outdoor activities, humming in ears or throbbing or even whining or wailing.
Treetops seemed to nod in fatalistic acknowledgment of the wind’s force. Branches shook in what sometimes could be interpreted as surly acquiescence to the will of the wind.
On the branches, twigs quivered and each individual leaf gave its own vibrating response, twisting on its stem.
Aside from its windiness, Saturday seemed a pleasantly warm spring day of the sort that might be expected in Washington in the middle of April.
The high temperature of 68 degrees was one degree above the average high of 67 for the date in Washington on the 13th of April.
Plenty of blue sky marked the afternoon. A random assortment of white clouds, of irregular shapes and many sizes, mostly small, seemed to sail at a leisurely pace in the sea of blue.
At least momentarily, they appeared to be high enough or distant enough to be independent of the furious force of the wind.
