The Washington Post - 23.08.2019

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU B5

BY MATTHEW CAPPUCCI AND JASON SAMENOW

It’s no secret the world is warm-
ing, but thanks in part to climate
change, humidity is also begin-
ning to surge. Here in Washington,
that means the punishing combi-
nation of heat and humidity is
only becoming more oppressive.
We reviewed data from four
different locations in the District
and broader region. Through this,
we calculated specific humidity,
which is the mass of water in a
volume of air. (It’s a much better
indicator how oppressive it feels
than the relative humidity, to
which we are accustomed.)
To calculate these trends in hu-
midity, it was a lot of number-
crunching — involving close to
2 million data points — with ob-
servations stretching back as far
as the 1930s. In the end, we found
that the District is, on average, a
little more than 5 percent more
humid than it was in 1970, and
slightly more than 10 percent juic-
ier than in 1950.
This is important because hu-
midity affects how we feel. Take
Wednesday, for instance. The aver-
age high for this time of year at
Dulles Airport is 86 degrees. With
1970s humidity, a typical summer-
time afternoon would produce a
heat index (a measure of how hot it
feels) of 89 degrees.
Now, when you factor in a high-
er humidity, it feels closer to 91 or
92 — and that’s at the same 86 de-
grees.
Consider average summer tem-
peratures have also warmed three
degrees since then, and the new
heat/humidity combination
would produce a heat index of
94 degrees: a five-degree bump in
how hot it feels. That puts signifi-
cantly more strain on the body,
and suddenly, you’re feeling the
heat.

The results

The increases in humidity we
computed are for the entire year,
but they also apply to each of the
four seasons, including summer,

at most of the places we reviewed. The spots we examined in detail are: Reagan National Airport, Dulles International Airport, Quantico, and Hot Springs in west central Virginia. At National, humidity has increased about slightly more than 5 percent since 1970. At Dulles Airport, it’s a little less than 10 percent. Why the difference? National is on the Potomac. Its average specific humidity is already 10 percent higher than Dulles. It’s likely that because National is already so moist, it’s difficult to add more to the air. Farther inland, it’s drier. That makes any incremental increases in moisture more significant. Dulles has seen roughly the same moisture increase since just the 1990s that National has since 1970. Like National, Quantico is near the Potomac. Similarly, it saw a humidity increase of just above 5 percent since 1970. Hot Springs, more than 100 miles inland, has historically been much drier — partly due to its elevation — but its rate of increase

in humidity, compared with its baseline, is three times higher than that of Quantico. Just since 2000, it has seen about a 10 percent increase in its humidity. It would seem we’re all experi- encing an increase. Those of us closer to the Potomac are seeing a slower increase, but we started higher; in other words, we’re used to extreme mugginess. It’s still getting worse. Those farther inland started with a lower baseline but are moistening much faster. The implications of this in- creasing humidity are significant. “When it comes to dangerous heat, climate change packs a one- two punch,” explained Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn- sylvania State University, in an email interview. “Not only do we see higher temperatures, but a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, so we tend to see higher levels of humidity.” Heat is a silent killer, particular- ly dangerous to vulnerable low- income populations and older adults who may not be able to afford air conditioning. “The more humid the air, the

more difficult it is for human be- ings to cool off through evapora- tion,” Mann wrote. “Episodes of extreme heat and humidity, such as we saw in the eastern and central U.S. this July, pose a particular danger to us.”

Methodology We pulled archived weather data to find hourly dew point observations at a variety of locations. At Dulles Airport, our data stretched back nearly continuous- ly to 1963, and at National, to 1938. (The latter data from 1938 to 1945 was recorded at 24th and M streets before observations were moved to the airport.) At Quanti- co, observations weren’t taken at night until late 1953. To combat irregularities in observation, we only used periods that featured complete data, and we focused on the period from 1970 onward. We also wanted to examine what was happening away from urban areas, lest infrastructure development play a role. Our data dive included Quantico, as well as Hot Springs in the George Wash- ington and Jefferson National For-

BY TOM JACKMAN

U.S. Park Police Chief Robert D.
MacLean, who has led the uni-
formed force since 2013, is being
promoted to head the Interior De-
partment’s Office of Law Enforce-
ment and Security, overseeing law
enforcement programs including
the Park Police and officers in the
Fish and Wildlife Service and the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, the In-
terior Department said Thursday.
MacLean, 53, has been a Park
Police officer for 28 years. He did
not return a request for comment.
The move was first reported by
Fox 5 News.
During MacLean’s tenure, un-
armed motorist Bijan Ghaisar
was fatally shot by two Park Police
officers on Nov. 17, 2017. After
Ghaisar was shot in a residential
neighborhood of Fairfax County
MacLean had his detectives begin
a homicide investigation and told

Fairfax police they were not need- ed, exercising the federal jurisdic- tion of the Park Police. Three days later, MacLean handed the case over to the FBI, though the bureau had not responded to the scene the night of the slaying. Ghaisar’s parents said Park Police officers treated them insensitively while Ghaisar, 25, lay in a coma, refusing to allow them to see their son for more than 10 minutes each hour or to touch him. No decision has been made about whether to charge the officers involved in the shooting, Lu- cas Vinyard and Alejandro Ama- ya. The U.S. Attorney for the Dis- trict, Jessie K. Liu, and a spokeswoman for the Justice Department’s civil rights division declined to comment earlier this week on when a charging decision might be made. Ghaisar’s mother, Kelly Ghaisar, was outraged by Mac- Lean’s promotion. “Every time I even start to allow myself to think there might be some hope for justice, I get hit with news like this,” she said Thursday. “Chief MacLean allowed, and possibly ordered, his officers to guard my son’s body and treat my family in

the most racist way possible. This is another example of a law enforcement supervisor getting promoted despite obvious evidence of conduct that would likely end any other career.” MacLean has remained silent about the shooting, refusing to disclose the names of the officers involved or details about why they

shot. After MacLean refused to release videos of the shooting recorded by two Fairfax County police officers, Fairfax Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. in January 2018 released one of the videos that appeared to document the entire episode. MacLean declined to comment on the video. Vinyard’s and Amaya’s names

were released to the Ghaisar family by Fairfax County police, who publicly disclosed them in a lawsuit against the officers and the Park Police in March. They re- main on paid administrative duty. The lawsuit is pending. The Park Police has about 700 officers in Washington, New York and San Francisco. MacLean previously worked on the department’s SWAT team and in internal affairs, headed its homeland security division, was the department spokesman, and served on a crime and violence task force with D.C. police and other agencies. Mac- Lean helped oversee security and planning for major events on the Mall such as inaugurations and Independence Day festivities. His department was criticized in 2017 when Park Police officers twice handcuffed youths selling water on the Mall. “We have to come up with better alternatives to handcuffing or having juve- niles handcuffed and exposed out in the public for that long,” Mac- Lean said. MacLean’s new job with the Interior Department involves overseeing law enforcement, security and intelligence activities

for seven agencies: the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service rangers, the Park Police, the Fish and Wildlife Service Of- fice of Law Enforcement, Fish and Wildlife refuge law enforcement officers, the Bureau of Land Man- agement and the Bureau of Recla- mation. The law enforcement office is described as the Interior Department’s “focal point to pro- vide program guidance and over- sight of the Department’s law enforcement, security, intelligence, counterintelligence/insider threat, and information sharing programs,” according to the office website. In announcing the job, Susan Combs, the assistant interior sec- retary for policy, management and budget, said, “Chief MacLean has a stellar record protecting vis- itors and resources and is proud of the partnerships he has forged that have focused on the mutual law enforcement mission that transcends organizational juris- diction and structure.” He is expected to begin in his new post on Sept. 16, Combs said in an email to Interior Depart- ment employees. [email protected]

THE REGION

Park Police chief promoted to a top Interior Dept. post

Tenure included officers’ 2017 fatal shooting of unarmed motorist

BY DAN MORSE

Two Maryland men were in-
dicted Thursday on multiple rape
counts after allegedly having sex-
ual encounters on different days
with the same 11-year-old girl
living in a Montgomery County
mobile home park, according to
court records filed Thursday.
The development is the latest
in a trio of sexual assault cases
that have stunned residents in the
suburban county north of Wash-
ington. “The cases just grab your
attention,” said Montgomery’s
top prosecutor, John McCarthy.
“They’ve been deeply concerning
and shocking.”
In the other cases, Kevin Men-
doza, 26, remains held in jail on
no bond amid accusations he
raped and tried to kill a stranger

in the common area of an apartment building, as does Luis Perez- Giron, 29, who police say molest- ed a 12-year-girl while his wife was in labor. McCarthy said the cases are each unusual. The 11-year-old victim? “The fact a young child could be victim- ized over several months by two different men — that has really captured the hearts and minds of the community.” The woman attacked by a stranger in the common area of an apartment building? “In this county, most rapes occur between two people who know each other. We don’t have that many stranger-on-stranger rapes.” The final case, involving the 12-year-old? “Alarming,” said McCarthy.

Three of the four men were unlawfully present in the United States at the time of their arrests, Justine Whelan, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Cus- toms Enforcement, said Thurs- day. One of the three had been previously deported, and another was the subject of an existing deportation order, Whelan said. The case involving the 11-year- old victim, first reported by WJ- LA-TV, began in July, when police in Montgomery County learned a young girl “had sexual intercourse with two different adult males over the last year,” detectives wrote in court records. She knew the men through a mutual acquaintance, according to the records. She said the encounters with the first man started in September 2018 and lasted

for about a month. Detectives also interviewed a staff member at an after-school program at- tended by the girl, who said the girl would come to the staff member crying about the sexual encounters. She said the man would tell the girl not to go to school so he could come to her house, according to the court papers. Police identified this suspect as Carlos Palacios-Amaya, 28, of Gaithersburg. He was indicted Thursday on four counts of second-degree rape for having sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 14, according to court records. The victim also told police that another man, who had come to her home for a party, performed sex acts with her July 21, 2018. Police identified that suspect as

Mauricio Barrera-Navidad, 29, of Damascus. Kathleen A. Dolan, an attorney for Barrera-Navidad and Pala- cios-Amaya, said both men “com- pletely maintain their inno- cence.” In the case involving the 12- year-old girl, police say that on May 8, Perez-Giron’s wife called the girl’s mother to say she need- ed help because she was in labor. Specifically, the wife asked if Per- ez-Giron could take their 5-year- old son to the friend’s home, where the 12-year-old girl was at the time. The plan: have the 12- year-old watch the 5-year-old, according court records. “When L. Perez-Giron arrived at Victim A’s home,” police wrote, “he let himself into the apartment.”

Perez-Giron fondled the girl and tried to pull her pants down, according to police. The girl told them he fondled her on an earlier occasion. Police charged him with two counts of third-degree sex offense. Esteban Gergely, an attorney for Perez-Giron, said his client denies the allegations. Gergely said he expects to produce a witness who will contradict the account heard by detectives. Attorneys for Mendoza could not be reached Thursday. Whelan, the ICE spokeswoman, said that Mendoza is a Hondu- ran national in the country unlawfully, and that Palacios-Amaya and Barrera-Navidad are Salva- doran nationals in the country unlawfully. [email protected]

MARYLAND

Two indicted on multiple counts of raping 11-year-old girl in Montgomery

CAPITAL WEATHER GANG

est. Quantico is a little over 30 miles south of the District, just inland from the Potomac, while Hot Springs is seated in a rural forested region of the Appalachian Mountains. The reason we chose these two latter locations? Variety, so we could compare urban, rural, river and mountain locations. We know that a fraction of ob- served warming in big cities stems from the “urban heat island” ef- fect, but while cities can make it warmer, it’s unlikely they make the air any wetter. In fact, they may slow down moistening of the atmosphere. That’s because city- scapes feature less evapotranspiration, a process through which vegetation evaporate water into the air, raising the dew point. Few- er trees in urban areas means less evapotranspiration, so any ob- served dew point trends should be strictly climatic. Richard “Heatwave” Berler, a Texas-based broadcast meteorolo- gist specializing in temperature and humidity, told us there should be no “dew point island.” Dew point is proportional to specific humidity. “In 1971, a friend and I got a... grant to pursue a study on this very topic,” Berler wrote in an email interview. “Amazingly... the dew point varied by less than one degree throughout! No dis- cernible dew point island!” That means the moisture increase we’ve seen is likely not tied to urbanization. This analysis is certainly not exhaustive, nor has it been peer reviewed. The data are subject to uncertainties due to the quality of instrumentation and any changes in observing practices. However, the results presented here are broadly consistent with published studies and independent analyses which reveal similar trends. In addition to the four locations at which we closely analyzed humidity trends, we also checked them at six additional locations in the region with long-term records, and all showed increases. Dew points rose at the rate of 2.5 to 5 degrees per century at Andrews Air Force Base, Baltimore-Wash- ington International Marshall Air- port, Annapolis, Salisbury, Char- lottesville and Richmond. [email protected] [email protected]

Climate change has made summer in D.C. feel more unbearable

Humidity in the region has increased since 1970 by 5 to 10 percent

MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST A participant attends a summer camp Wednesday at the D.C. location of Trapeze School New York. To determine the trend in rising humidity, the Capital Weather Gang calculated specific humidity.

CLIFF OWEN/ASSOCIATED PRESS Park Police Chief Robert MacLean in 2015. He’ll soon head the

BY KATHERINE SHAVER

A glass panel fell from the ninth-floor balcony of a Bethesda apartment building Thursday, in- juring a girl hit by glass pellets that rained down onto a sidewalk below, Montgomery County au- thorities said. The 12-year-old girl was taken to Suburban Hospital with non- life-threatening injuries, said Ed- ward Sherburne, chief of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad. A witness said paramedics applied a bandage to the girl’s head. Sherburne said the county’s Department of Permitting Ser- vices will investigate why the rect- angular panel, which was about four feet by five feet, fell from the balcony railing about 5:20 p.m. The glass came from a top-floor unit at the 8300 Flats apartment building at 8300 Wisconsin Ave. just north of downtown Bethesda. The red-brick sidewalk at the corner of Woodmont Avenue and Battery Lane — on the building’s southwest corner — was covered with glass pellets Thursday eve- ning. The sidewalk is at the en- trance of a Harris Teeter grocery store. Sherburne said the panel, made of safety glass, was de- signed to shatter in place and fall as pellets rather than as a large shard. This is the second Bethesda building where glass has fallen recently from top floors onto side- walks below. In May, the owner of a nine- story office building on East-West Highway, about a half-mile away in downtown Bethesda, agreed to replace part of its glass facade after finding that manufacturing defects caused glass panels to break 11 times since April 2017. Glass pellets fell to the sidewalk below at least three times. No one was injured. Glass experts say manufacturing imperfections can cause glass to shatter spontaneously, often after sun has hit it from a certain angle. [email protected]

MARYLAND

Girl hurt

by falling

glass panel

The Washington Post - 23.08.2019

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