Rain, rain just won't go away in capital

WASHINGTON - University of Florida student Ryan Brown has only six weeks for his Capitol Hill internship. He had hoped to visit museums and absorb the nation's history with strolls around the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials.

Instead, he spent last weekend huddled in his dorm with other interns, sheltering from the relentless rain and chill that have marred the Washington spring.

"You walk into work and it's raining. You walk out of work, and it's raining. It's difficult, because down in Florida when it rains, it rains for about an hour, and then it's gone," said Brown, an Orlando native interning with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

In a city where war, tax cuts and other weighty issues usually dominate center stage, the weather has stunned Washingtonians and grabbed their attention with its unorthodox performance.

After near-record snows in February, the region's spring has been essentially snuffed out. Gloom descended April 28 and, for the next 32 days, there was no sunshine, save for an occasional weak ray fluttering through the clouds.

On May 30, the sun appeared for a day, then disappeared. On Thursday and Friday, there were actually both warmth and sun. But the rains came back Saturday, and Sunday was cloudy.

The forecast for this week is for more showers.

In May, recorded precipitation at Reagan Washington National Airport was 7 inches, 3.2 inches more than average for the month, according to the National Weather Service. The average May temperature was 61.7 degrees, almost 4 degrees lower than usual.

After snows that shut the city down for days in February, the rain has been especially hard to absorb, both literally and mentally. Waterlogged soil has led to flooded basements. Gardening and outdoor home improvement projects have been delayed. Golf courses and beaches are getting little use.

The National Cherry Blossom Festival, held March 22 through April 7, was marred by snow and cold. An estimated 700,000 people attended the famous tourist event this year, some 200,000 fewer than in 2002, said Diana Mayhew, executive director of the festival.

"The week after the festival, the trees were still blooming, but (the cold) pretty much put a damper on that," Mayhew said.

In coffee shops around town, Washingtonians are huffing that if they wanted this much foul weather, they'd have moved to Seattle. For residents of the Sunshine State here temporarily, the weather has been especially jarring.

After his sophomore year at the University of Florida, Dennis Gucciardo arrived on Capitol Hill last month for an internship. Thinking like a Floridian, he packed shorts for the free time he planned to spend sightseeing.

But he soon found himself relying on his one pair of jeans. Then his jeans got stained by mud at Pimlico racetrack, where he watched the running of the Preakness. Forced to buy more pants, he stocked up on some long-sleeved shirts as well.

"Everyone's been kind of depressed and down," said Gucciardo, an intern for Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa. "I think, "Why are you wearing a jacket? It's June!' "

Meteorologist Richard Hitchens of the National Weather Service acknowledged, "It's been a gloomier than normal spring." But he cautioned that Washingtonians have been spoiled by unusually warm and dry recent winters and springs.

"It's not normal for it to be sunny here all the time," Hitchens said. "On average in Washington it rains about every three days" in spring.

Hitchens said the clouds and rain are caused by a weather pattern known as a trough. The pattern of low atmospheric pressure is just sitting, like a big frown, over the region. There's no real explanation, Hitchens said. It's not the effects of El Nino or La Nina.

Yet it can also be tempting to take the pagan view. Could the skies reflect the state of humankind living under its cover? Might the sniper shootings, the threat of terrorism and the war in Iraq all be combining to pull tears from the heavens?

No, said Hitchens. "Sometimes it just rains a lot."

And sometimes, it doesn't.

Thursday and Friday unfurled here into a glorious sunny blue, and Washingtonians finally got to enjoy spring. Joggers weaved past women in sandals and sleeveless shirts. Park benches were crowded at lunch.

In Lafayette Park outside the White House, National Park Service gardener John Allen, 41, sprayed a bed of red salvia and gray-frosted plants known as dusty millers. But it had rained for days before. It was going to rain for days afterward. Was it habit that possessed Allen to stand there watering the plants?

No, Allen said. Just those dusty millers, newly planted. "The ground was wet and muddy, but those plants were dry," he said. "They just need a little soaking."

As a gardener, he has welcomed the rain. Unlike last summer's drought, it has kept the grass thick and green. But humans are another story.

"The sun, we needed it," he said. "We are so tired of the rain."

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