Meteorological Mayhem: D.C. can’t catch a break with the storms, can it? Around 5:30 p.m., Pepco’s outage map shows 8,000 customers without power. -3

Heat Defeat: Washington has recorded its seventh day over 100 degrees in 2012, tying this year with 1988 for second place for days above 100 degrees. And we’re just halfway through July. -4

Sandal Scandal: A teenage boy got his flip-flop pulled into a Metro escalator last night—-and when he tried to pull it out, he got his hand caught, too. The teenager had his hand trapped for 30 minutes. -2

Young Post Readers: In these tough times—-as Washingtonians are pelted by hail, burned by the heat, only for the survivors to be gobbled up by escalators—-we can count on one thing to keep our spirits up: pictures of babies reading the Washington Post. Silly babies, no one under 40 reads the print edition of the Post! +3

Tuesday’s Needle rating: 46 Today’s score: -6 Today’s Needle rating: 40