The autumnal equinox marks the official goodbye to summer and the hello to fall. Scientifically, it signals the shift toward shorter days and longer nights as Earth's tilt leans us closer to winter.

Friday was four days since the autumn equinox but patience still was required of the fanciers of fall, because the warmth of summer still seemed to linger in Washington in the late September sunshine.

Summer expresses itself in Washington in many ways, some of them quite pleasant, such as Friday, a day in what might seem deepest summer, but a day that brought neither scorching heat nor steamy ...