Spring arrived in Arizona early Wednesday morning, at 4:02 local time.  And, as KJZZ’s Dennis Lambert reports from Phoenix, winter was about average this year.

The 30-year average says the Phoenix area should get 3.7 inches of rainfall between December and the end of March.  Meteorologist Ken Waters of the National Weather Service says we’ve had 3.4 inches in the Valley so far.  But he says the dry vegetation that will result from those storms could be a problem in the months ahead.

“The combination of temperatures and rains has given us a fair amount of grasses that are growing for the spring, which gives us a little bit of concern for the fire weather season," Waters said.

Winter temperatures were variable, with some warmer than average days in early December, but colder than normal temperatures in January and February. The average winter temperature through Tuesday has been 67 degrees. That’s up two degrees from the average temp, and Waters says he expects a dry spring, for the most part, with normal temperatures.