A paucity of precipitation this month April in Washington has brought much that was expected of it, including crowds of tourists, cool mornings and warm afternoons. But the April showers, famed in song and story, have been noticeably missing. By late afternoon, no rain had been measured on Saturday at Reagan National Airport, the National Weather Service said. For April 2012, this was the rule, not the exception. On 11 of the first 14 days of this month (including Saturday) no measurable rain was recorded at the airport. The largest amount of rain on any day was less than one-tenth of an inch. It has been in many ways a parched period, continuing the pattern of a year without moisture. "I'm not saying it's dry," read a comment that appeared Saturday on the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang Web site, "but I just saw a tumbleweed blow across the beltway." Such fanciful sights have not yet been widely reported. But the idea of them helps underscore the significance of the data collected each day. So far this month, the total rainfall at National is about one-tenth of normal - 0.16 inch - compared with the normal figure through Saturday of 1.48 inches. For the entire year, total precipitation here has amounted to about 55 per cent of normal. The amount measured since Jan. 1 is 5.7 inches, and the normal amount is 10.39. One popular song credits April showers with bringing May flowers. It was unclear late Saturday how the paucity of precipitation conditions may affect horticulture. However, dry conditions have been cited as a cause of the rapid growth and spread of wildfires in Virginia last week. A blaze in Page County, known as the Shipwreck Fire, had burned more than 4,748 acres by Wednesday, the Virginia Department of Forestry said. The forestry department listing included the Alleghany Tunnels Fire in a remote part of Alleghany County, in which 6,004 acres had burned. Smoke was visible on Interstate 64, the forestry department said. High winds and low humidity also contributed to the fires" growth, the agency said.