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livingdebI am tired of it raining here. And it's not the usual Austin rain, either. First of all, we're usually about done with rain for the summer by now (which isn't good, but raining practically every single day is hardly better, in my opinion). I've heard we've already gotten as much rain this year as we got all of last year.
But also it's just a different kind of rain. Hard to explain. Normally, I think our rain follows a certain pattern which our recent rains have not been following. It starts sprinkling lightly, then gradually starts raining harder and harder until it reaches some maximum (ranging from just sprinkling to pouring down rain), then stays at or near that volume for some random amount of time, say between five minutes and eight hours, and then peters out.
It's also not the way I remember Houston rain. There, once it starts raining, you should seek cover immediately. You do get some time, maybe two minutes, never more than five. And then it will start pouring down rain. This will continue for a short while, say ten to twenty minutes. Then the rain will stop, and you can be on your way. If you are driving in Houston, and an intersection is flooded, you always know that the right thing to do is wait until the water goes down before trying to ford the intersection, because it won't be a long wait. You'll never be sitting there for six hours or anything like that, so it's never worth risking your life.
Our rain is also not the way I remember Seattle rain where it is always lightly sprinkling unless it is a summer afternoon.
No, now when you feel a sprinkle of rain, you better get out your umbrella right now unless you will be at your indoor destination within the next minute because the rain grows in volume until it is pouring down rain extremely quickly. Then it will rain hard long enough to soak you completely: as little as a minute or two, or up to twenty minutes. Then it will stop as suddenly as it started. And perhaps even get sunny. And this happens at random intervals throughout the day (maybe not even once, like last Sunday, but usually many times). I'm realizing that actually that does sound a lot like how I described the rain in Houston, but in Houston you have more of a warning and once it has rained, you're done for the day.
This is like someone has taken regular spring rains and is playing them at high speed.
From the other side of the window at my office at work, it sounds just exactly like Mother Nature is taking a pee. She has a pretty big bladder, but she keeps refilling it. (Last Sunday, she was obviously sleeping off a long night of partying.)
One nice difference, though, is the sky. Normally the sky here is either blue (pretty) or white (boring) and occasionally we get interesting cloud formations. Now we normally have a mix of several kinds of clouds, all at the same time, in different shades of grey with clear sky showing through as well. Much prettier and more interesting.
Entry of the day: Smitten Kitten's Skyscraper Cakes - totally captures the feeling I had creating stuff with my best friend as a kid. "Fascinated by cakes with endless layers, one time we cut the layers so thin, we were able to make the Layer Cake of Our Dreams, six flats of cake each filled with a different shade of frosting (red, orange, yellow, green and blue) and covered in purple icing." Also shows how sometimes the stuff you learn playing around as a kid can come in handy later as a grown-up. Also a recipe for layered strawberry birthday cake with pictures. Also makes me want to go play in the kitchen.
But also it's just a different kind of rain. Hard to explain. Normally, I think our rain follows a certain pattern which our recent rains have not been following. It starts sprinkling lightly, then gradually starts raining harder and harder until it reaches some maximum (ranging from just sprinkling to pouring down rain), then stays at or near that volume for some random amount of time, say between five minutes and eight hours, and then peters out.
It's also not the way I remember Houston rain. There, once it starts raining, you should seek cover immediately. You do get some time, maybe two minutes, never more than five. And then it will start pouring down rain. This will continue for a short while, say ten to twenty minutes. Then the rain will stop, and you can be on your way. If you are driving in Houston, and an intersection is flooded, you always know that the right thing to do is wait until the water goes down before trying to ford the intersection, because it won't be a long wait. You'll never be sitting there for six hours or anything like that, so it's never worth risking your life.
Our rain is also not the way I remember Seattle rain where it is always lightly sprinkling unless it is a summer afternoon.
No, now when you feel a sprinkle of rain, you better get out your umbrella right now unless you will be at your indoor destination within the next minute because the rain grows in volume until it is pouring down rain extremely quickly. Then it will rain hard long enough to soak you completely: as little as a minute or two, or up to twenty minutes. Then it will stop as suddenly as it started. And perhaps even get sunny. And this happens at random intervals throughout the day (maybe not even once, like last Sunday, but usually many times). I'm realizing that actually that does sound a lot like how I described the rain in Houston, but in Houston you have more of a warning and once it has rained, you're done for the day.
This is like someone has taken regular spring rains and is playing them at high speed.
From the other side of the window at my office at work, it sounds just exactly like Mother Nature is taking a pee. She has a pretty big bladder, but she keeps refilling it. (Last Sunday, she was obviously sleeping off a long night of partying.)
Different kind of rain.
Hard to explain.
Who's got the beer?
Bring it here!
Tasty and and new.
Oops! Back to the loo.
One nice difference, though, is the sky. Normally the sky here is either blue (pretty) or white (boring) and occasionally we get interesting cloud formations. Now we normally have a mix of several kinds of clouds, all at the same time, in different shades of grey with clear sky showing through as well. Much prettier and more interesting.
Entry of the day: Smitten Kitten's Skyscraper Cakes - totally captures the feeling I had creating stuff with my best friend as a kid. "Fascinated by cakes with endless layers, one time we cut the layers so thin, we were able to make the Layer Cake of Our Dreams, six flats of cake each filled with a different shade of frosting (red, orange, yellow, green and blue) and covered in purple icing." Also shows how sometimes the stuff you learn playing around as a kid can come in handy later as a grown-up. Also a recipe for layered strawberry birthday cake with pictures. Also makes me want to go play in the kitchen.
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rain patterns
on 2007-06-27 07:42 pm (UTC)Denver rain tends to happen mainly in the spring. It comes down in a giant-ass torrent, and it's COLD. It stops in 5-30 minutes and the sun comes back out and everything is cool and delicious. The town floods extremely easily (like, 3 minutes of hard rain and there is a river outside my apartment) and you can't see the lines that divide lanes on the street because, due to the necessity of snow-plowing, they don't have any of those bumps on them.
Re: rain patterns
on 2007-06-28 04:17 pm (UTC)Re: rain patterns
on 2007-06-29 12:13 am (UTC)In Atlanta, rain is the only reason drivers ever slow down. They don't even slow down for construction or school zones. It took me a while to figure out what freaked them out about rain. Finally I decided it's because the highways are built out of something that gets very shiny and glares after a rain. So you really can't tell where the lanes are on those otherwise fabulous twelve-lane freeways. But no, that still doesn't explain it.