FOCUS: RAINY SUMMER
Shakespeare and others are stifled by summer's tempests
Frequent rains have been a midsummer night’s nightmare for Shakespeare in Delaware Park, causing seven performances to be canceled or cut short.
Dark skies have threatened Thursday at the Square 10 of 12 weeks. Last week, the weather forced Dweezil Zappa’s set to be cut by an hour.
Rain and thunderstorms — or the threat of them — have so far helped produce a 6 percent drop in attendance at America’s Fair and also forced cancellation of one of the featured concerts.
Those entertainment events, along with countless family gatherings and home-improvement projects, have been affected by this summer’s unusually rainy weather.
According to the National Weather Service, 38 of the 72 days since June 1 — more than half — have seen a shower or thunderstorm, with rain falling during seven out of those 10 weekends.
“It’s really been crazy,” said Lisa Ludwig, Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s managing director. “We’ve had the threat of rain all summer.”
“King Lear,” the company’s first production, was canceled twice because of rain, with a third presentation halted at intermission. “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” currently being staged through Sunday, already has had five washouts.
Unlike typical summers, where it’s not unusual to go 10 days to two weeks without rain, the longest stretch this year has been five days, around the July 4 holiday.
“At least the timing was good,” said meteorologist Steve McLaughlin of the National Weather Service.
By now, McLaughlin said, “We should have had rain on 22 days. The actual number has been 37, so that [increase] has been pretty impressive.”
It’s that frequency that distinguishes this summer.
At the same time, since June 1, 34 days have been warmer than normal, compared with 27 cooler than usual.
And while the 9.5 inches of rain recorded at Buffalo Niagara International Airport is higher than usual, it’s only 1.4 inches more.
Those figures don’t tell the whole story, though. Lancaster and Depew, for instance, had four inches of rain Sunday, while Buffalo Niagara International Airport measured less than an inch. And the northern and southern towns have had much more rain this summer, with parts of Amherst and Clarence receiving more than 12 inches, as well as Colden and Wales.
Managers at several home-improvement and paint stores said they have seen a change in business this summer because of the rainy weather.
William Malczewski, store manager at Hector’s Hardware store on Clinton Street, noted more lawn mower repairs were occurring later into the season because grass is still growing. He said fewer sprinklers and hose nozzles were selling because of the wet season.
Steven Joseph, Buffalo Place’s marketing manager, said the threat of rain or a thunderstorm has hovered over nearly every Thursday at the Square concert this summer. Last week, Buffalo Place stopped Zappa’s set an hour short due to concerns about lightning and thunder.
Artpark spokesman Mike Freedman has also had a few nervous moments wondering what the weather had in store, but the park has dodged the bullet so far, with less than three weeks left in its season.
Not all entertainment events have been hard hit by rains.
Jessica Ruth, a spokeswoman for Sorrento Cheese, said rain fell during two days of the four-day Sorrento Cheese Italian Heritage Festival in July but passed pretty quickly rather than lingering all day.
“We still had a great turnout, one of our [best],” Ruth said.
The Taste of Buffalo, held last month, saw heavy rains late on a Saturday, which Jim Fink, past chairman and the event’s spokesman, characterized as a “15-or 20-minute gully washer.”
“Were we hurt? Yeah, a little bit, but all things considered the weather was not that much of an issue,” Fink said.
Lou Ann Delaney, marketing director, said America’s Fair, which began Wednesday, lost about $105,000 because of the weather’s forced cancellation of a Saturday concert by teen star Vanessa Hudgens, as well as the second night of a tractor pull.
“I’m pleased, almost thrilled with a 6 percent decrease to date with the type of weather we’ve had compared to last year,” Delaney said. She’s hoping for better weather leading up to the fair’s close Aug. 17.
Shakespeare in Delaware Park is trying to make the best of the weather. But it’s hard for a theater company that derives 40 percent of its operating budget from passing the hat.
“After 33 years of free Shakespeare in the Park, we don’t want it to go away because of an angry Mother Nature,” Ludwig said.
