March ends with long-awaited sunshine in South Sound

March lived up to its reputation in Thurston County, starting with 1.68 inches of rain on the first day and wrapping up with sunshine and 71 degrees.

But it did rain. And rain. And rain. Until this week’s bright stretch, the Olympia airport registered precipitation all but three days, ending the month with 8.51 inches. The normal for March is 5.14 inches.

What it didn’t do this winter was snow in the lowlands. Olympia had just a couple of skiffs of snow, barely enough for a slushy snowball. The lowest temperature for the month was 27 degrees March 17.

The current sunshine isn’t all good news. Allergy sufferers will notice that pollen counts are very high, especially tree pollen. Birch, cedar and juniper are the most active, according to weather.com.

The sunshine has ignited the gardening impulse, said Carla O’Neill, owner of The Barn Nursery on Old Highway 99.

“Yesterday, we were just crazy here with lots of customers with huge amounts of excitement,” she said. “One gal was so wiped out and tired. ... She said ‘I’m working like a horse because I feel like if I don’t, it may rain in two days.’ That’s where people are, because we waited so long for this.”

It’s a good time to prepare soil, clean out beds and plant cool weather seeds and vegetable starts, she said. It’s also a good time to plant fruit and shade trees, and shrubs.

But people should check to see if their soil is dry enough to work, O’Neill said. The winter rain has left some areas saturated and gardeners with muddy soil or clay should wait, or amendment soil to improve drainage.

“We’ve been waiting for so long, and now it’s all coming all at once,” O’Neill said.

The month averaged about a degree and a half above normal, said Art Gaebel, meteorologist for the National Weather Service Office in Seattle.

Gaebel said the three-month outlook for April through June is for warmer and drier than normal.

“They keep getting better and better with that,” he said.

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 4:26 PM with the headline "March ends with long-awaited sunshine in South Sound."