Pi Day proves one of winter’s windiest in Washington

March is known for its winds, so the blasts that beset Washington on Tuesday might not have surprised many. But a 50-mph gust still seemed worthy of doffing our caps. If, of course, we gripped them tightly enough.

Whatever the validity of the association between March and wind, this month has done plenty to support it. On three earlier days, gusts have topped 40 mph.

But Tuesday seemed to outdo them all and to impel our still-wintry Washington air into memorably vigorous motion.

Not only did the wind reach a momentary peak of 50 mph in Washington, but flags, trees, branches, traffic and hat-holding pedestrians also confronted a sustained wind of 35 mph.

They did so under often-blue skies on what seemed the brightest day since daylight saving time began. The increasingly strong mid-march sun of Pi Day (3/14) seemed almost to suggest solar impatience for the start of spring.

But our top temperature of 45 chilly degrees did not seem springlike. In fact, it was 11 below average for March 14 and did not seem to conform to the “spring-is-here” narrative many of us had constructed. The morning low temperature fell to 36 degrees, just four above freezing.

Those temperatures and the sting of the wind seemed wintry. So perhaps did the few snowflakes seen here Monday. They went into the books as a “trace” of snow.