The rains have returned. The soft grey sky, behind which we always knew the sun lived but we rarely saw, that sky once again covers our light and rapidly fading tans, cloaks and nurtures us with familiarity and drops blips of moisture upon our heads. Weird, huh? Life is becoming normal again. We don’t have to postpone something urgent indoors because the sun is shining. (And for the record, we NEVER postpone anything just because it’s raining!) We can tuck away the colorful clothes and return to our usual drab adornments that match the dull sky or the ground. We can read and knit and watch football (on tv) and quit trying to master barbecuing. We can go to museums and galleries and coffee shops. We can plan trips to sunny spots for January, February or March when the grey skies no longer seem like a cushy blanket but like a straight jacket.
It really is kind of that way in Seattle. You’re born here and don’t know any different. You move here and get used to it…or you move away. For us “rain-hards”, rain isn’t just rain, though. Like there are many shades of green, so there are many kinds of rain. I wish every kind of rain had descriptive names and I think it would be a valuable service for some philanthropist to offer a prize for the most creative new words for different types of rain. (For instance, I couldn’t find a word for the sideways rain that accompanies hard or gusty winds, but we get that all the time.) Lacking more, here’s a run-down of a few “standard “ types of rain.
1. Drizzle is a light liquid precipitation consisting of liquid water drops smaller than those of rain - generally smaller than 0.02 in diameter. Now, this definition comes from Wikipedia and they got it from the some meteorological dictionary and it surprised me to read it because to me, a drizzle is like a constant drip with no beginning and no ending. I envision it as the “string theory” come to life. Clearly, officially, I am wrong, but the word…say it…DRIZZLE…to me it’s like continuously runny snot from a person with a cold or apply that to rain…continuously dripping precipitation.
2. Mist is a “phenomenon” (the person couldn’t mean mist is a “marvel” because in Seattle it is pretty common and therefore, not such a marvel) caused by small droplets of water suspended in air. It can occur as part of natural weather and is common in cold air above warmer water. Despite being common, mist is mysterious. Taking a walk in mist means coming home as wet as if you’d gone swimming and not bothered to dry off. AND if mist is accompanied with FOG…well, suspense novelists use this form of precipitation to allow a murderer to disappear despite an entire police force out looking for the killer.
3. Other terms involve where and how extensive rain is include, sprinkles, showers, off and on, deluge, monsoon, and soaker. There are no official definitions of these terms.
4. Finally, back to more official descriptions of rainfall intensity based on the rate of precipitation and again from Wikipedia and the U.S. meteorological people: • Light rain — when the precipitation rate is < 0.098 inches per hour • Moderate rain — when the precipitation rate is between 0.098 inche - 0.30 inches or 0.39 inches per hour • Heavy rain — when the precipitation rate is > 0.30 inches per hour, or between 0.39 inches and 2.0 inches per hour • Violent rain — when the precipitation rate is > 2.0 inches per hour
And so, the day after the vernal equinox, that is the first official day of fall, Seattle quit pretending to be something it’s not and returned to doing what it does best—smile though the rain is falling (or was that though your heart is breaking?) Whatever. Just go “Singin’ in the Rain,” ok?
No comments:
Post a Comment