Gloomy, brusque Friday was a 2023 weather outlier

In this mild winter, Friday seemed to be one of Washington’s dampest, chilliest, breeziest, and possibly even gloomiest, days of the year.

All those attributes, possibly traits of other times and places, seemed to assert themselves Friday, from dim midafternoon into dark early evening.

Frustrating any expectations of sailing serenely into a bright spring, with days adhering to the precedents set by January and February, the mercury Friday afternoon stayed stuck in the lower 40s.

Between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., the thermometer failed to climb above 43, amid mist, rain and fog, which may be the natural constituents of gloom.

As raindrops spattered, dripped and pattered, chill Friday seemed to urge huddling into greatcoats, if we had them, and heading home to warm fires, if we could make them, while trying to recall when and just where such weather regularly occurred.