Rain, rain, go away: Here’s your guide to navigating a wet WHCD weekend

Those clichéd April showers are putting a damper on the glut of festivities in Washington surrounding Saturday night’s White House Correspondents' Association dinner.

“The tent companies are going to be very busy over the weekend,” said veteran Washington event planner Kimball Stroud. “With every seasoned event planner, you always plan for rain. And everybody’s prepared for rain.”

She’s organizing the Time Magazine after-party on Saturday night at the Swiss ambassador’s residence, which thankfully is inside. But she said that if the current weather holds, she expects more women to wear wedge heels instead of spiked heels so that people’s expensive shoes don’t get ruined in rainy muddy ground when they’re out and about this weekend.

“I’m not one of those young girls with high heels and especially if an event is outdoors you don’t want your high heels sinking into the wet ground,” said Francesca Craig, the former longtime social secretary for the French Embassy.

But Craig said the rain isn’t really affecting her outfits for the correspondents’ weekend parties anyways, joking that “I never know what I’m gonna wear until ten minutes before anyway.”

Tammy Haddad said that she’s still expecting the same amount of people to her famous garden brunch being held on Saturday in Georgetown, saying any rain won’t affect her party: “We always tent the garden.”

The rain also isn’t putting a crimp on the annual POLITICO brunch held on Sunday at the Georgetown home of POLITICO founder and former owner Robert Allbritton and his wife Elena Allbritton.

“Everything is tented, and we knew that rain was coming, so we got more tents,” he said. He added that it’s kind of a good thing it’s raining on Friday because if there are any leaks in any of the tents, they can go fix them. But he said that the weather can easily change.

“I’ve been flying planes long enough to know they can’t predict the weather three hours in advance, much less three days,” he said, “so I always want to be ready for anything.”

The culprit is a series of storm systems moving from the Southeastern U.S., through the Mid-Atlantic and into New England. The wettest days will be Friday and Sunday, but showers could occur at any time throughout the weekend.

Friday could be the rainiest day so far this year in Washington. A soaking rain was already underway Friday morning, but the heaviest rain is expected late afternoon and evening. The storm is also expected to produce strong winds off the Atlantic, with easterly gusts of up to 40 miles per hour possible Friday night.

Cooler-than-average temperatures will also prevail: High temperatures are expected to be in the lower 60s, about 10 degrees below normal for this time of year.

Saturday — the day of the dinner, held at the Washington Hilton hotel — could be spared. Some rain is possible Saturday morning — there’s a 60 percent chance of rain, according to the National Weather Service office in Sterling, Va. — and rain is also possible Saturday night, mainly after midnight, when the dinner after-parties are typically in full swing.

With the drier conditions, Saturday will also be a bit warmer than Friday. Temperatures are expected to top out in the upper 60s or lower 70s on Saturday afternoon. (The average high temperature is 73 degrees.)

Closing out the weekend on Sunday, more rain is likely — including a risk of strong or severe thunderstorms as a low-pressure system climbs the Atlantic coastline from the Southeast to New England. High temperatures should be in the 60s.

If not for disrupting weekend plans for partygoers and everyone else throughout the region, the D.C. area could use the rain. According to the National Drought Mitigation Center — a cooperative effort between the University of Nebraska, the Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — much of the Mid-Atlantic is in a “moderate drought.”

Entering Friday, Washington has received 6.81 inches of rain so far this year — well below the statistical average of 11.84 inches. April has also been dry — 1.48 inches of rain so far, with 3.21 inches the average for the full month — though the next three days will likely erase most if not all of that deficit.

Minor flooding is possible Friday and Sunday. A Coastal Flood Advisory is in effect for Washington with inundation possible along the Potomac River seawall on Ohio Drive and along the Tidal Basin. Some urban street flooding is possible later Friday, though the city’s rivers and streams — the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, along with Rock Creek — are unlikely to flood given the drought in the area.