This is getting ridiculous. (Photo by ekelly)

For the seventh time this year, the temperature in Washington has reached three digits. As of this writing (about 4 p.m.) it is currently 101 degrees at Reagan Washington National Airport, with a punishing heat index of 109. (To say nothing of the severe thunderstorms rolling in.)

Gross, right? Well, not only is this stagnant, blistering heat making us sweaty and uncomfortable, it’s also inching closer to a rather ignominious climatological record. We’re now just four instances away from matching the all-time record of days over 100 degrees, set in the summer of 1930, when D.C. experienced 11 triple-digit-temperature days.

There’s still plenty of summer left, though, making it more of a distinct possibility that the 82-year-old record will fall at some point in the near future. During the last band of 100-degree days earlier this month, Capital Weather Gang noted that summer 2012 saw its fifth 100-degree day a full fortnight ahead than summer 1930 did.

It’s miserable and brutal outside. Can you really blame the Washington Examiner for complaining the way it did today?

Via Newseum