Ship of Fools: 100 words for rain

Thread: 100 words for rain Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

The Eskimos (so the story goes - but probably a hoax) have a hundred words for snow. Because they see so much of it.

As the Weather thread is proving rather well, many of us are seeing rather too much rain, which made me wonder how many words we can come up with between us to describe the precipitation phenomena. 30, 50, 100, 200? Let's see how far we can get and make the thread really soggy.
If there's an interesting story to your descriptive term, all the better.

Piddling Down

(In Dorset, there flows the River Piddle, with its resultingly named towns, Piddletrenthide, Piddlehinton, and you can even visit the pub The Piddle Inn, if you need to dry off.)

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

mizzling

That soft refreshing rain that makes the West Country so green.

(Piddletrenthide might be where to find the Piddle Inn and be in the Piddle Valley, but it so isn't a town, it's a village of population of about 700 people. That there bee-y where I do curm frahm - well the main (valley) road to Dorchester from my neck of the woods and the easier route to cycle home from Dorchester.)

Posted by comet (# 10353) on :

my aunt calls the fine, misty kind of rain "spiddlety-do". I have no idea where the word comes from.

when it appears to be sunny yet a little warm rain is falling, we call it "sundrops". and a really torrential downpour my (colorful) father calls a "frog-strangler".

quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
The Eskimos (so the story goes - but probably a hoax) have a hundred words for snow. Because they see so much of it.

the story grows. I always heard that there was about 35. back when I studied Inupiaq (don't ask, all I retain are cusswords, a few random nouns, and numbers 1 through 5) I was taught probably about 7, which included forms of ice.

and hey, lookie here...

(brought to you by comet, ruining people's fun since 1973...)

[ 18. June 2012, 08:10: Message edited by: comet ]

Posted by Galilit (# 16470) on :

One of the standard weather forecast phrases where I grew up was "persistent rain" which led to the descriptive form "It's persisting down".

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :

Here in Southern California, when some gray clouds that actually might dump half an inch of rain on us arrive on the horizon, the local news throws on screen, in big graphics STORM WATCH! [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

Eh, stop tempting providence, you lot! It's beautifully sunny today.

Posted by Beenster (# 242) on :

Don't forget the squally showers! I love them - well not the actual showers but the expression. It's so animated and makes the rain sound very alive and angry.

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Galilit:
One of the standard weather forecast phrases where I grew up was "persistent rain" which led to the descriptive form "It's persisting down".

If I hadn't already read where you grew up, that alone would tell me.

Another one from the same place - intermittent rain, followed by showers [Confused]

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

Cats and Dogs is one I remember which then led some folks to say pussies and pups but then we are talking about when I was young and innocent.

We get a lot of rain here but I don't think there is a large range of words for it - I shall ask TPTB.

Posted by EtymologicalEvangelical (# 15091) on :

Rain is sadly known as bad weather in my neck of the woods. I say "sadly", because when I was in Uganda some years ago and I and my Ugandan friends were caught in a torrential downpour, I was told that this was good weather (admittedly we were in the car at the time).

Ever since that time I have tried not to call rain "bad weather" (except in times of flooding, of course). "Never curse the rain" is my little bit of superstition now.

Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :

Mr RoS works outdoors, so the weather is a frequent topic of conversation.
The terms we mostly use are
Spitting, (if it's only trying to rain)
Very light rain is Drizzle, Mizzle or A Bit Damp
Stair-rods, or Chucking It Down (if you can barely see through it)
and
Precipitation (if you can see it heading towards you)

Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on :

Datsun Cogs was a common phrase for a while, until the company spoilt it by changing their name to Nisan.

We still say persisting down here though.

Posted by Smudgie (# 2716) on :

I designate a certain type of precipitation as "wet rain" - you know, the sort which has you miserable and soaked to the skin within seconds without really looking as though it's raining properly at all.

A speciality of the Isle of Wight also seemed to be "horizontal rain". I've got photographic evidence of that, somewhere.

Reminds me of the old (and not very funny) joke: When it's raining cats and dogs, be careful not to treat in a poodle.

Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on :

Not just horizontal we get uphill rain round here.

Posted by Niminypiminy (# 15489) on :

My grandfather used to speak, hopefully, of a clearing up shower, presumably one which doesn't go on to become settled in, which is that rain, which, accompanied by a uniform, low grey sky, goes on steadily all day.

Posted by birdie (# 2173) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Smudgie:
I designate a certain type of precipitation as "wet rain" - you know, the sort which has you miserable and soaked to the skin within seconds without really looking as though it's raining properly at all.

That's 'that fine rain that soaks you through' in our house (a la Peter Kay, and hopefully not actually in our house).

Also 'fat rain' - those big splodgy drops you get, usually at the beginning of a summer shower. ('Fat snow' also available in winter.)

We also have 'persisting down' as well as 'trying to rain' and 'thinking about raining'.

I understand that the Wlesh equivalent of raining 'cats and dogs' is raining 'old women and sticks', and I say that (in English) sometimes, just for a bit of variety.

Posted by Nanny Ogg (# 1176) on :

I call some types of rain "Sticky rain" because of the way lands on clothes, hair etc making you damp but not really wet.

It's the sort of light rain that creeps under umbrellas so I don't usually bother with one.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

All at the very wet end:

pouring down
sheeting it
tipping it down

at the soft and gentle rain end:

misting (walking the Pennine Way there was a lot of misting if there wasn't actual precipitation)

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

We have "cat feet," which is the opening moments of a shower when you're sitting in the car looking at big drops hitting the windshield and leaving four or five droplets behind arranged in the form of a cat's pawprint.

Posted by Beethoven (# 114) on :

Bucketing down is one I remember from my youth, but don't think I use often (despite its relevance here recently... [Roll Eyes]

)

It's definitely worse than 'pouring', and far worse than the dreariness of 'drizzling' (a word which is nice when associated with cakes, however!).

And the phrase 'it's not rain, it's liquid sunshine' got into our family vocab on a trip to the Grand Canyon in 1984, and has stayed there ever since! [Smile]

[ 18. June 2012, 11:50: Message edited by: Beethoven ]

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

Drips and drops as one TV weather presenter down here has called it for some years. Drips and drops are accompanied by the business of the brolly.

Posted by The Rogue (# 2275) on :

And don't forget that Mr Barker advised the residents of Lissing Down to carry an umbrella.

Posted by BessHiggs (# 15176) on :

Living in a farming community, rain, whether it's too much or too little, is a constant topic of conversation. Everyone has a rain gauge which they check with religious zeal. Quantities are compared and discussed with an almost ritualistic fervor. Heck, there was even a country song a year or so ago called "Rain Is a Good Thing."

As for colorful sayings about rain, my family had the word grelfy which meant the kind of day with that annoying soaking mist/rain accompanied by a feeling of grey ick. Grelfy days are best spent inside with a pot of hot chocolate, a good book or a lover, or a combination of all three.

Posted by Roseofsharon (# 9657) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Smudgie:
I designate a certain type of precipitation as "wet rain" - you know, the sort which has you miserable and soaked to the skin within seconds without really looking as though it's raining properly at all.

Ah, as a gardener I call that 'Useful Rain', as it will soak into the soil and down to the plant roots - as opposed to 'Too Much Rain' that runs off the surfaces and down the drains without doing the plants any good at all.

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
100 words for rain

Lancashire.

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lothlorien:
Drips and drops as one TV weather presenter down here has called it for some years. [/b]

Is that better or worse than spits and spots?

Posted by Niminypiminy (# 15489) on :

I'd forgotten spitting which is sparse, unpleasant drops -- which, however optimistically one may say 'oh, it's only spitting' always lead to heavier rain.

(x-posted)

[ 18. June 2012, 15:39: Message edited by: Niminypiminy ]

Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on :

My Mum uses the phrase Scotch mist, meaning that kind of haze of dampness that isn't quite rain.

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

Or the Irish equivalent, a nice 'soft day'.

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

Hammering Down - lots of very wet rain.
Cloudburst - lots and lots and lots of very very very wet rain.
Mizzy - misty dampness, such as is to be found most of the year round on Dartmoor (often caused by low cloud).

In Creamtealand, it's either raining, just about to rain or just finished raining. Much like most of the West of Britain really, especially Wales and the Lake District.

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

and the Pennines. (Ever been to Haworth?)

Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:

quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
100 words for rain
Lancashire.

the rain carrying winds come from the South West and meet the Pennines, a range of large hills running South to North. which is not a problem, the rain clouds head North. That is until they encounter the Forest of Rossendale, not a forest of trees, but a range of not quite as high hills which go from the Pennines North of Rochdale West to North of Bolton.

The rain clouds have nowhere to go but upwards, and ascending clouds drop their rain, making the Manchester area one of the wettest in the country. The hill above Rochdale is called Hail Storm Hill. It is well named. Do not move to the village of Newhey if you want to stay dry.

What it means on this side of the hills is that much of the rain has already been shed by the clouds by the time they get here, less than 20 miles from Rochdale. The hills between is where the rain falls upwards.

Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on :

Cross posted with:

quote:
Originally posted by Angloid:
and the Pennines. (Ever been to Haworth?)

Another almost treeless forest, The Forest of Bowland, together with Pendle Hill creates another pocket of rain further north. The Aire valley lets more rain get through to the calmer side of the hills.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

My antecedents being country folk, rain tended to be either spitting or pissing. Or coming down in torments.

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

In dry parts of the Western United States, a sudden, strong rain can cause normally dry, shallow ditches to become raging overflowing torrents rather quickly. This is called a gullywasher.

(Incidentally, we desperately need a few of those at the moment, as we are currently dealing with two large forest fires, with no rain in site. [Frown]

)

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Balaam:
Cross posted with:
quote:
Originally posted by Angloid:
and the Pennines. (Ever been to Haworth?)
Another almost treeless forest, The Forest of Bowland, together with Pendle Hill creates another pocket of rain further north. The Aire valley lets more rain get through to the calmer side of the hills.

Born and brought up in the Aire valley, I think of grey skies and rain as normal. A year spent near the east coast was a revelation. And moving to (supposedly) damp Merseyside was a pleasant surprise. We send the clouds to fall on Wigan.

Posted by georgiaboy (# 11294) on :

In the rural Kentucky area from whence I hail (sorry, couldn't resist that one!), a really heavy rain would be described as 'It's flat-rocking,' which was short for 'raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock,' which is sufficiently graphic, I think.

Posted by no_prophet (# 15560) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
The Eskimos (so the story goes - but probably a hoax) have a hundred words for snow. Because they see so much of it.

Except they do not. Words for snow

quote:
Wikipedia "Eskimo words for snow":
The "Eskimo words for snow" claim is a widespread misconception alleging that Eskimos have an unusually large number of words for snow. In fact, the Eskimo–Aleut languages have about the same number of distinct word roots referring to snow as English does.

(I would also note that, at least in Canada, the term "Eskimo" is not used to refer to the people or the language, the people are Inuit, and the language Inuktitut. Eskimo is about equivalent to 'negro' to refer to people I think).

Posted by no_prophet (# 15560) on :

Words for rain:

-cloud burst - like buckets and buckets of rain are coming down, except minus the buckets.

-squall, which is a bit of blustery rain, and 'white squall' which is a lake thing where the water is being blown up from the lake and mixing with the falling rain, which is usually coming horizontally.

-dirty weather - when the sky is black with rain clouds and it is really raining hard, and there is possibly a tornado in the black. We had this last Friday, but luckily the tornadoes avoided houses for the most part.

Posted by comet (# 10353) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no_prophet:
(I would also note that, at least in Canada, the term "Eskimo" is not used to refer to the people or the language, the people are Inuit, and the language Inuktitut. Eskimo is about equivalent to 'negro' to refer to people I think).

an additional side note - that's not the case here. "Eskimo" is used to include the groups of people who speak (something like) 5 or 6 related languages and have related cultures. people here are more likely to be offended if you call them Inuit, as those are the Canadians. [Biased]

If you don't know if someone is Inupiaq, Yup'ik, Chup'ik, etc it's acceptable to call them eskimo. Heaven help you if you call a member of the indian groups that, though!

is there really only one Inuit language in Canada? that's wild.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Here you are, all neatly arranged in a scale.

Posted by Deputy Verger (# 15876) on :

In South Africa, when it rains while the sun is shining they call it a Monkey's Wedding.

Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on :

I heard a Zambian person use the word "monkey shower" for the same thing.

In France, the expression for very heavy rain is "il pleut des cordes" - it is raining ropes [ETA which it has done a LOT recently - top Parisian accessories this season are a big Mary Poppins umbrella and a pair of wellies].

[ 19. June 2012, 08:16: Message edited by: la vie en rouge ]

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

sheeting down - when the rain drops are so close together that they appear to be joined together in sheets.

Posted by East Price Road (# 13846) on :

I see that BBC link has beaten me to it, but here in Yorkshire I hear people sometimes use "siling", as in "it were silin' down" (first syllable pronounced "sigh"), meaning it was pouring down. It corresponds to the same word in the Scandinavian languages, as the Danes say "det siler ned (med regn)", it's pouring down (with rain).

Posted by dj_ordinaire (# 4643) on :

My mum always used to describe rain as 'a passing shower'. Even if it had been pouring down all day and showed every sign of continuing to do so, she would typically express the opinion that it was 'just a passing shower'.

(Despite being four years in Ireland, I've yet to hear the proverbial 'fine soft morning' although my parents swore they did in years gone by...)

Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on :

Ach, it's just a bracing dampness in the air.

Posted by no_prophet (# 15560) on :

quote:
Originally posted by comet:
If you don't know if someone is Inupiaq, Yup'ik, Chup'ik, etc it's acceptable to call them eskimo. Heaven help you if you call a member of the indian groups that, though!

is there really only one Inuit language in Canada? that's wild.

Interesting! There is more than one language, though it is more like dialect, with Greenlanders speaking mostly intelligible to Inuit, but I've heard that this is also not true. I think what we've had is language loss, then reintroduction which may have made language more uniform, particularly with the creation of Nunavut (eastern arctic territory. The west is Yukon and North West Territories, which have other language and cultural groups.

I understand than Inuktitut is a very difficult language to learn. The construction, nuances and use of 'infixes' which are like suffixes and prefixes that go into the middle of words or word strings make it so. Inuit throat singing is probably the most familiar thing to most Canadians.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no_prophet:
Interesting!

There could be two opinions about that.

What is clear, is that it doesn't have a lot to do with rain.

Firenze
Heaven Host

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :

Aleut and "Eskimo" cultures moved from West to East in the not too distant past, starting in Chukotka (the north-eastern tip of Siberia) maybe two thousand years ago, arriving in the Hudson Bay area not much moire than a thousand years ago not getting to East Greenland till the late Middle Ages. So the easternmost languages haven't had time to diverge much and are basically versions of one Inuit language. There is less language diversity among them in all of Canada and Greenland put together than in Alaska, and less in Alaska than in the Aleutians. (And there might have been more once - some of the ancestral diversity in the western part of the range might have decreased due to expansion of Yupik both east and westem and some Aleut languagtes are extinct)

So the Eskimo-Aleut languages are unrelated to other native American languages. They are perhaps close to Chukchi and some language spoken in Kamchatka and eastern Siberia. (If the theoiries of some looney Russian philologists about an ancient "Euro-Asiatic" language are true they are closer to English than they are to other American languages - but we have no real evidence)

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

ken - what part of 'this is a tangent' do you not understand?

If you want - any of you - to discuss the Inuit, bloody well start a thread on it.

Firenze
Heaven Host

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

Meanwhile, returning you to where it's teeming down....

Posted by Nicolemrw (# 28) on :

Did someone say "spitting"? How about "misting"?

Posted by WhateverTheySay (# 16598) on :

Normal weather.

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

plutting (I think a variant of the French word for raining)

Posted by Rosa Winkel (# 11424) on :

I don't think anyone has said "bucketing" yet.

Or "pissing".

I seem to recall hearing the phrase "it's raining cats and dogs and horses, and they're all having a piss".

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Deputy Verger:
In South Africa, when it rains while the sun is shining they call it a Monkey's Wedding.

We've always called it the devil beating his wife! Love those sunshowers!

Saturday I drove through a torrential downpour. Could only see about ten feet in front of my car. I needed one of you to give me a better word for that dousing I got.

Posted by Lynn MagdalenCollege (# 10651) on :

quote:
Originally posted by EtymologicalEvangelical:
Rain is sadly known as bad weather in my neck of the woods. I say "sadly", because when I was in Uganda some years ago and I and my Ugandan friends were caught in a torrential downpour, I was told that this was good weather (admittedly we were in the car at the time).

Ever since that time I have tried not to call rain "bad weather" (except in times of flooding, of course). "Never curse the rain" is my little bit of superstition now.

The Rabbis in Jerusalem ask God not to listen to the prayers of the tourists...! Because, of course, tourists want "good weather", meaning dry and sunny, but Israel relies on rainfall, therefore - please don't listen to the weather-prayers of tourists!

Growing up in Los Angeles, sufficiently distant from natural sources of water that I never thought about where the water pouring out of my faucet came from, I heard the scripture, "He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust," and didn't realize rain is one of God's great passive blessings and not some punishment He sent that sloughed off onto the good guys, too. [Hot and Hormonal]

All that to say - what about "spitting," or has it already been mentioned? I've heard it in person and also read it in books and it describes a very specific kind of rainfall.

Posted by Banner Lady (# 10505) on :

After 10 years of drought, (which broke two years ago), rain is very definitely considered a blessing around here.

And that scripture just posted always reminds me of a former shipmate saying:

The rain, it falls on the just and unjust fella;
But more on the just I fear
Coz the unjust pinched the just's umbrella

Thanks, FD.

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

God's having a shower.
Or even God's crying.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

In Dutch, when it's pouring we say something that literally translates as "It's raining pipe stems." I never understood where they got that from.

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
In Dutch, when it's pouring we say something that literally translates as "It's raining pipe stems." I never understood where they got that from.

Whereas in (francophone) Belgium it must have been raining pipe-smokers.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

quote:
Angloid: Whereas in (francophone) Belgium it must have been raining pipe-smokers.

Nice one!

I found this site, listing the equivalent of 'It's raining cats and dogs' in different languages. I found that the Scandinavians are especially creative. The Norwegians have 'It's raining female trolls' and the Danish 'It's raining shoemakers' apprentices' [Ultra confused]

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

Possibly significant that English appears to have most variations. Though cats and dogs type rain is comparatively rare here... drizzle and its variations are much more common.

Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :

Excessive heat is what they called "bad weather" where our daughter lived. Elsewhere, often when I am on the job, it's called pissing down.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

'dreich' includes rain, but it is so much more (cold, wet, throw-yourself-under-a-bus miserable). Enough of it can render you droukit.

Posted by Lynn MagdalenCollege (# 10651) on :

LeRoc and Angloid, do you think "raining pipe-smokers" was an advance upon "raining pipe-stems"? You know, one of those dueling "see you and raise you" descriptive battles?

"Misting", sometimes, when it's not really falling-- when you're inside the cloud (either because you're up in the mountains or because the cloud cover has just dropped a whole lot! I guess it would be like "fog with teeth"...

Posted by WhateverTheySay (# 16598) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
God's having a shower.
Or even God's crying.

I used 'God's having a shower' a lot when I was in high school. The other that comes to mind is 'God is on the toilet'.

Posted by Banner Lady (# 10505) on :

And the angels are watering God's garden (the Earth).

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lynn MagdalenCollege:
LeRoc and Angloid, do you think "raining pipe-smokers" was an advance upon "raining pipe-stems"? You know, one of those dueling "see you and raise you" descriptive battles?

I have come across raining stair rods.. And raining cats and dogs is very common in my part of middle england.

Also chucking it down, and the heavens opened for a sudden downpour.

I have heard on the weather forcast, and it has always got my imagination wondering, 'organised rain' - what is disorganised rain then?

Posted by Beethoven (# 114) on :

Disorganised rain? That must be what we have here this morning when it's not quite sure if it's actually raining, or if the moisture's just supposed to be hanging around in the air. Every so often there are a few drops, but mostly it's just grey and misty.

(No idea if that's what the Met Office have in mind, but it works for me! [Big Grin]

)

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

quote:
Lynn MagdalenCollege: LeRoc and Angloid, do you think "raining pipe-smokers" was an advance upon "raining pipe-stems"? You know, one of those dueling "see you and raise you" descriptive battles?

That would be fun, but I'm afraid the raining men on the Golconde painting aren't actually smoking pipes.

BTW, it's lovely weather here in Mozambique today! [Big Grin]

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
I'm afraid the raining men on the Golconde painting aren't actually smoking pipes.

No, but they are the sort that would be if they weren't preoccupied with making an upright landing.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

quote:
Angloid: No, but they are the sort that would be if they weren't preoccupied with making an upright landing.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Beethoven:
Disorganised rain? That must be what we have here this morning when it's not quite sure if it's actually raining, or if the moisture's just supposed to be hanging around in the air. Every so often there are a few drops, but mostly it's just grey and misty.

I had never encountered that kind of rain until I moved to Belfast.

Moo

Posted by Aelred of Riveaux (# 12833) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Smudgie:
I designate a certain type of precipitation as "wet rain" - you know, the sort which has you miserable and soaked to the skin within seconds without really looking as though it's raining properly at all.

I thought that was a family expression, nice to see someone else using it too. My Granny always referred to it as 'that wet rain' with emphasis on 'that'.

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

Holiday rain, you know the sort - that starts the second you get in the car to drive off, travels with you and continues throughout the whole time you are away. Just as you are packing up to go home and can stay no longer, the sun comes out and a heatwave begins. But only in the place you leave behind - the rain follows you home.

Come on down to sunny Devon
Where it do rain 6 days in 7

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
I found this site, listing the equivalent of 'It's raining cats and dogs' in different languages. I found that the Scandinavians are especially creative. The Norwegians have 'It's raining female trolls' and the Danish 'It's raining shoemakers' apprentices'

"Tractors are falling." Yikes.

Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on :

Rain, not necessarily heavy, but with enough black clouds to make visibility poor is called "mucky weather." A bit like this afternoon.

Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on :

I was told today by someone at work who comes from a Russian speaking country somewhere like Kazakhstan (I am not entirely sure which country) that back home they would call the sort of rain we had this afternoon 'mushroom rain' (in the local language)- this is a brief but heavy shower on a sunny humid day, when the sun continues to shine through the shower. The sort of weather that encourages mushrooms to grow I suppose. This seems to be corroborated here

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :

I distinguish here between Manchester and Sheffield rain. Firstly over a ten minute walk both will get you soaking wet, but Manchester rain is finer and more persistent. Sheffield rain is so heavy we get floods running down hill despite perfectly adequate drains (the water will vanish within seconds of the storm finishing but it can still be an inch deep on a marked slope. The other thing is soaking is just about instance, Sheffield rain really does bucketting down, if you go out of it, it is instantly as if you have had a bucket of water tipped over you.

Unfortunately the present lot is definitely a present from Manchester.

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