Cold, wet weather takes toll on some businesses

Courtney Orton reportingThe calendar says it's April, but it feels like winter just won't go away.

Traditionally, April is the second wettest month of the year in Utah. The moisture is a good thing for plants and grass, but it can be a bad thing for businesses that rely on the sun.

"We're waiting. We wake up every morning hoping to see the sun," said David Terry, with the golf division of Salt Lake City Public Services.

There's no doubt that by the time April rolls around we're all ready to see the sun. But it's especially pleasing for some when the sun means money. "April is an important month for golf revenues, no doubt about it," Terry said.

This time last year, Salt Lake City-owned golf courses were $50,000 ahead of where they are now. David Terry says it's all par for the course. "If we go into the end of April and into May with temperatures in the 50s and rainy, snowy conditions, then we really start to feel it," he said.

Local nurseries have already started to feel it. Tina Cerling of Western Gardens said, "People aren't coming in, in quite the waves."

It's a side-effect of a cooler, wetter spring that Cerling says can actually be a good thing. "It's great weather for some of the plants that often get bit by the heat too soon. So you don't really get a good crop of pansies or primrose or some of the early season, cooler plants. So it's good for that," she said.

Cerling said cold, winter-like weather now may keep us from taking the sun for granted when it comes out to stay. "We'll just enjoy the warmth when it comes so much more. I hope this means we aren't going to have such a scorcher this summer."

This spring is starting off much different than last year, when the weather warmed up much more quickly.

E-mail: corton@ksl.com

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