Suffolk News-Herald

Weekend trips to the beach didn’t materialize.

Attempts to get the garden planted were washed out repeatedly.

Little League teams are still trying to make up games that were rained out.

All in all, May, with 22 days of rainfall, was pretty dismal and gray.

Last month alone, Suffolk received 7.64 inches of rain, said Capt. Jim T. Judkins, the city’s emergency service coordinator. That’s 60 percent more that the 4.77 inches of rainfall that fell during May 2002.

To date, the city has received 24.4 inches of rainfall this year, Judkins said.

&uot;We’re quite a bit ahead of schedule for the year,&uot; he said.

But the rain hasn’t put a damper on everything.

Though they won’t attribute it directly to the weather, representatives from entertainment-oriented businesses – including a tanning salon, movie theatre and shopping mall – say they saw increased usage last month.

&uot;Rain does tend to drive business for us,&uot; said a manager at Harbourview Grande Theatres in northern Suffolk, who declined to give her name. &uot;People tend to come inside when it rains.

&uot;It’s been a phenomenal month for us,&uot; she said. But she stressed that May is usually one of the movie industry’s best months anyway and that several anticipated movies – including &uot;The Matrix Reloaded&uot; and &uot;X-Men 2&uot; – opened.

Bonnie Tomlin, manager of Electric Beach, a tanning salon on Holland Road, said May was an extremely busy month as people sought to acquire that &uot;deep beach tan&uot; – without the sun.

&uot;I’ve been busy this whole season,&uot; she said. &uot;I’ve even had to turn people away, particularly in the evenings.&uot;

Laura Stafford, marketing director of Chesapeake Square Mall, said the mall had experienced some increase in traffic.

Although she didn’t have numbers, she said people tend to &uot;gravitate to the mall to hang out when the weather is bad.&uot;