Hi Peggy! Welcome to ATP!
>> Should I wait until we have a few sunny/warmer days in a row? or stick some in the ground and take my chances?
I'd suggest sowing around 1/4 or 1/3rd of your peas as early as you think they have a chance. Then, if weather stays colder or wetter than those peas like, you have time for a second and third sowing.
I had the same problem as you described: direct-sowing peas into wet, cold, wet (clay) soil gave me very few emerging pea sprouts. I think they rotted.
Usually for me, direct sowing LATER worked better, but I missed the coolest part of spring. Fortunately for me, our early summers are cold enough that peas don't mind the "heat".
One year, I tried covering the bed with plastic, sloped so rain would run off, for a few weeks before sowing. That might have helped germination a little.
Soaking the peas at least overnight before planting seemed to help - they germinated or almost germinated before going into the cold, wet ground and seemed to do better.
Or you could sow them very early into guttering under plastic, kept warmer and drier than the soil. Then push the peas and soil out of the guttering into a trench when the seedlings are several inches tall.
