#84461
10/23/2002 8:07 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
C J Strolin 's post in biz buzz, about rain
An older expression that I haven't heard for years is "It's raining pitchforks." I was reminded of this expression recently while reading a postcard which was written in the late 1800's which mentioned the weather as "raining pitchforks and hammer handles." "Pitchforks", OK, but "hammer handles"?! You KNOW that had to be a drencher!! got me thinking about rain and other stuff
how do you define rain?
when it just starts, it could be "spittin'"
but if it is a light, misty rain, its "soft" (as in a soft day)
then there is just rain
which can be steady (steady rain)which sometimes becomes bubble rain (the rain drop, magically from bubbles on impact, -- a summer only thing, from the heat of the tarmac)
then there is heavy rain (which i privately call "check rain" the heavy drop clearly bounce and drop again, so each drop is like a check mark )
and raining buckets.. which is very heavy, and finally
sheet rain.
sheet rain is a wall of water, sometimes found on the leading edge of thunder storm, it is sometimes so heavy, your car windshield wipers can't deal with it!
and this is just wet rain.. not counting hail (not to common in NY even with thunder storms, i have never seen hail much bigger than large peas.)
and sleet, and ice... and snow.. and there must be words for fog...
last week the i almost had an accident, the rain was hitting the front hood of my car, and dancing there for a minute as a drop.. the car hood was just hot enough to create a water vapor barrior, and the drops dances, as they do on hot pan or griddle, before being vaporized themselves. it was hard not to watch them.
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#84462
10/23/2002 10:24 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Raining cats and dogs wouldn't be as heavy as sheet rain. My favorite expression of rain--and definitely in the hard rain category--is the gullywasher. There is a bright day, and suddenly the rain comes down in torrents. The gullies and gutters fill quickly, and then, just as suddenly, the gullywasher has bellied up. I like seeing gullywashers just to have an excuse to say gullywasher. Maybe I should put this term on Raven's Tripping thread!  But how do I define rain? Sure, the misty rain qualifies as rain, but when the atmosphere is simply heavy with humidity and even mist, I wouldn't call that rain. I like my rain, misty or otherwise, to perceptively fall. However, that's just my take. Raining pitchforks sounds like painful rain--rain falling so hard, it causes a stinging sensation in the flesh. Definitely not a "Singin' in the Rain" kind of rain. The coolest name for fog I know is pogonip, the fog that contains frozen moisture that can actually kill. People who live in the pogonip regions of the US know to run inside when a pogonip arrives. Deadly.
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#84463
10/24/2002 12:16 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
I'm sure I've mentioned this one before but in Newfoundland we get weather forecasts of "RDF" = Rain, Drizzle, and Fog. And it is precisely that. I've started to differentiate between raining and non-raining fogs but I have no nice words for them.
In late July, it can be warm and foggy and drizzly all at the same time, and the Newfoundland word for this is mauzy. It is also called capelin weather because during weather like that, the capelin "come in", and it's a great time to see whales (who come to eat capelin). You don't even need a boat, they're right below you as you stand on the cliffs.
Then on the sea during the winter you can have slob ice which is a slushy mixture of ice and water.
My husband and I differentiate between cold and warm snow. The cold snow, which we rarely get in Newfoundland (but is the standard in Winnipeg) crunches under your feet. The warms snow just goes "schlup".
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#84464
10/24/2002 2:22 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear of troy: here is a good URL about hailstone formation: http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/hailform.htmOnce when our carpool was going home at about 4:45 PM, we saw a thundercloud ahead, and just a few monents later hailstones the size of golfballs were hitting the windshield, threatening to shatter it. I have read that rising air currents may delay fall of stones and build up extra layers on them. I have read about military pilots having to eject at high altitudes and having rising air currents actually causing them to be lifted up quite a ways.
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#84465
10/25/2002 9:17 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Raining cats and dogs wouldn't be as heavy as sheet rain
- but you'd have to watch that you didn't step in a poodle.
My favourite word for that really fine rain which is really not much more than a fog but which soaks you through, is "Scotch Mist."
The Scots, themselves, call such weather "dreich" (pronounced "dreek", more or less.)
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#84466
10/27/2002 1:41 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Somebody somewhere (!) coined mizzle, for a precip. that is partway between mist and drizzle, I think. WW, I too like a rain that falls with understanding... 
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#84467
10/27/2002 11:49 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
In Ithaca we call it wet sunshine.
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#84468
10/27/2002 4:00 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Somebody somewhere (!) coined mizzleQuite an old word, Jackie (certainly been around since I was a child  ), and is common where it's common - http://www.bartleby.com/61/50/M0355000.html
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#84469
10/27/2002 6:00 PM
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Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 261
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 261 |
i have never seen hail much bigger than large peas.)[...]and there must be words for fog...
I haven't either (about the hail), though I have heard of thick fog being described as a pea-souper.
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#84470
10/29/2002 12:45 AM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
I have heard of thick fog being described as a pea-souperI'd presume incorrectly so these days, bonzai - pea-soupers were fairly specifically thick fogs mixed with smoke from thousands of (old) coal fires, as you used to get in London. Nasty stuff. http://www.cloudman.com/fog/londonfog.htm
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#84471
10/29/2002 11:03 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
pea-soupers were fairly specifically thick fogs mixed with smoke from thousands of (old) coal fires
Not to mention the small chunks of ham floating about through the air.
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#84472
10/29/2002 12:28 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
In reply to:
Not to mention the small chunks of ham floating about through the
air.
Faldage, you've become such a ham!
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#84473
10/29/2002 1:03 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
small chunks of ham floating about through the air.
- which is how East ham (in the East-end of London) got its name of course! The "pea-souper", to which shona refers, was also know, in the C19, as "a London particular." It is a phrase whose originas I've never managed to unravel - I s'pose I'll have to LIU [ sigh ] Certainly, the term "pea-souper" was common when I was at school, because we were sent home early when one occurred. I have been out in london fog where you could barely see your hand at the end of your outstretched arm - literally, "you couldn't see your hand in front of your face!" as the common expressionn had it. Crossing the road was an adventure and it was very easy to lose your way, even on familiar territory. Driving a motor vehiclae was a nightmare. Then came the Clean Air Act, in the late '50s, I think, and within five years, thick fogs of that sort just did not happen.
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#84474
10/31/2002 9:37 AM
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
The coolest fog I remember being in was in Honey, Hidalgo, Mexico. Honey is a small town in the mountains near Tulancingo, Hidalgo, founded by a group of British ex-pats. It has the feel of an English village, sorta. The groves of pines looked particularly eerie at dusk with the fog rolling through. Fortunately we weren't far from our vehicle when the fog surrounded us and reduced visibility to about one foot. Come to think of it, Mexico City and all it's air pollution is not that far from there. Hmmmmm. I wonder how much effect it had on that fog?
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#84475
10/31/2002 11:44 AM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Certainly, the term "pea-souper" was common when I was at school
Those last pea-soupers in London in the ‘50s! I had forgotten them until reading your post Rhuby, then it all came back. I recall in the early 1950s that there were evenings (late afternoon really – but it was dark by 3.30 anyway) in winter when we had to be escorted home by the teachers and on each intersection there were large, greasy black Aladdin’s lamp type of oil lamps set down on the pavement with a flaring oily flame coming out of the spout. These were not to help pedestrians but to assist the bus drivers; the buses crawled along the kerb with the conductor walking in front shouting instructions to the driver who literally could not see the kerb or the electric street lamps overhead. It all seemed exciting then, the groups of us children all well wrapped up with scarves over our mouths, heading off in different directions into the gloom shouting and chattering, seeing the orange glow of an oil lamp in front of us and being upon it practically before we knew we were there; your group diminished in size as kids gradually reached their homes and were dropped off. On the way vehicles would appear from the murk, usually with drivers who were lost and asking directions – I hope, but doubt, that our multiple and varied responses were of help!
Incidentally an expression on rain from those days was “Its raining stair-rods” for that heavy vertical rain that comes down in straight lines. You don’t hear that now, but then you don’t see stair-rods now either.
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#84476
10/31/2002 1:03 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
you don’t see stair-rods now either.
dxb, what is a stair-rod? Is it the vertical supports for the hand-railing, or the railing itself? Or something else entirely?
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#84477
10/31/2002 2:11 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
that heavy vertical rain that comes down in straight lines
Which reminds me of the quote from the on-the-scene reporter at a hurricane a year or two ago, "The rain is coming down horizontally."
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#84478
10/31/2002 2:39 PM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
dxb, what is a stair-rod?A stair rod was a thin rod, sometimes of quarter inch (6mm) diameter brass with a little knob on each end to finish it off nicely, sometimes wooden (in which case it had a right angled isosceles triangle cross section and was rather stouter, say 20mm a side, and varnished) that went across the stair at the bottom of each riser to hold the stair carpet in place. The rod itself was held in place with metal eyes, one at each end of the rod, that were screwed to the tread and riser of each step. These days it is usual to hold the carpet with metal grippers that run across the stair screwed to the tread and riser of each step behind the carpet, hence you can't see them.  Hope that's clear.
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#84479
10/31/2002 2:40 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
The rain is coming down horizontallyI know it sounds illogical but that is the normal state of affairs in Newfoundland, especially for snow. Once in a while you get a snowstorm occurring somehow in the absence of wind, and you look outside to see the snow coming straight down, and you think to yourself - "My, doesn't that look odd? What is it? I can't quite put my finger on it". Then you realize that you just aren't used to snow or rain falling vertically!
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#84480
10/31/2002 2:42 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Hope that's clear.Why, yes it is. I've seen stair rods before, especially in old historic buildings, but I never would have known what they are called. Thanks!
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#84481
10/31/2002 3:34 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Let us remember that there are other forms of precipitation, especially in chemistry,
We get sugar by boiling off water from syrup. Confectioners sugar results from rapid
precipitation, and larger crystals from slower precipitation.
Many useful products from precipitation in various types of brine. And slow precipitation
is the typical means of purifying many imortant chemicals and medications, because the
formation of crystals excludes impurities.
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#84482
10/31/2002 4:34 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Ask a body builder [grin]
TEd
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#84483
10/31/2002 4:48 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Impolite to stare at rods, TEd/
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#84484
10/31/2002 11:12 PM
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Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 27
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 27 |
...and appropriate for this holiday (Oct 31st) season:
I work part time in a gym that has a gorgeous Olympic-sized HEATED swimming pool. Every once in a while, the heat will go out in the room housing the pool (Yes, I know, "natatorium," but some of the muscleheads I deal with barely understand the concept of "swimming pool") but the water heater will continue to function. If this occurs on a cold winter's day, a very thick and spooky fog will form over the water and surrounding deck area to a depth of up to two feet. When this happens, we rename the pool "Lake Transylvania" and the skinny-dippers have a field day!
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#84485
04/03/2003 1:45 PM
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 24
stranger
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stranger
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 24 |
My mother referred to a heavy snowfall as a "fanny-dragger."
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#84486
04/04/2003 12:30 AM
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
I grew up differentiating between a mizzle and the lighter Scotch mist which, when you first walk outside, feels like champagne bubbles against your face. A mizzle just feels wet but without the wonderful sound of raindrops.
When my mother moved from the praries her family laughed at her for saying that the rain "isn't as wet" on the coast. But it's true, the clouds have all day so they don't dump everything at once.
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#84487
04/04/2003 12:34 AM
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
PS Beanie, I presume you're North American as I understand that phrase could have a quite different meaning elsewhere. 
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#84488
04/04/2003 2:21 PM
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 725
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 725 |
In reply to:
An older expression that I haven't heard for years is "It's raining pitchforks."
When I first moved to Oregon some years ago, I heard the phrase: "it's raining pitchforks and n*gger babies." Let me tell you, I was outraged and gave the person who said that a scolding!! 
He was a man in his late 60's and just didn't understand why I thought it was wrong.
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#84489
04/04/2003 4:10 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Okay, three things: CB, my father and his brothers used that expression, too. [distate e]; I have no idea what "other" meaning fanny-dragger could have; and, um, frankly it sounds funny to me to hear that "the clouds have all day". Under what circumstances would they NOT have all day?
Sorry to be so churlish, but I am away from home until the 6th., using my laptop. I am trying to keep in mind that I am lucky to be able to be on-line at all, but. The keyboard is different, it is much slower than my "real" computer, I'm using an el-cheapo service provider which means that ads pop up about every five minutes--I can tell one's coming because the keys suddenly quit working and I have to wait till the ad pops up, then close it; and it is too frustrating to deal with PM's: my laptop really cannot deal with loading my Check Private page. It takes about 20 minutes to download it, and another 10 to bring up the message. And twice already it has frozen up completely when I've tried to Check Private. Oh, and every half-hour there comes that lovely little box that says my service provider has detected no activity in the last 30 minutes(??), and they will shut me down in X number of seconds unless I click the little Resume button.
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#84490
04/04/2003 10:17 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
RE: "the clouds have all day". Under what circumstances would they NOT have all day?
funny thing weather, we often think its the same every where, (and it is, in that it's always changing!)
but inland storms tend to be at the leading edge of fronts, (where the air pressure changes from high to low -- which is why a drop in barametric pressure is usually an indicator of a coming rain) and especially on the flat plains of North America (from texas to hudson bay!) these storms can be very fast moving...and very intense. it always seem that when they don't develop into tornado's, they instead dump huge amounts of rain, and cause flash floods.
but coastal areas, can get rain from off shore breezes, which carry moisture onto the land--and this rain, can come and go. I spent a week's vacation in Seattle, and it rained every day--and everyday was beautiful-- they rain rarely lasted more than a 1/2 hour, you ducked into a store, or better yet a starbucks, had a coffee, and when the rain stopped, you went on your way. an hour or two later, you need sunglasses, and sun screen... and then again, in the afternoon or evening, it was raining again...never very hard. just on and off showers..
Upstate NY (and parts of MI and other north east states) get this kind of weather all the time, and in the winter, they often get "lake effect snow". when the wind picks up, it speeds over the water, picking up moisture, and then as it hits land, it slows..the change in speed also causes a change in air pressure, and bingo, rain..(or snow).
which coast you are on also makes a difference, (since the jet stream tends move from the west to the east, (so the pacific north west has a rain forest, and New England just has forest) and mountains and other geographical features can also effect storms (and well as ocean currents like the gulf stream...)
I always think of there being 4 seasons, (spring, summer, autumn and winter) but many places have 2(wet and dry) and some have three (what they call the three seasons varries-sometimes wet,dry and winter, sometimes winter, mud and summer)
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#84491
04/04/2003 10:39 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
In reply to:
(what they call the three seasons varries-sometimes wet,dry and winter, sometimes winter, mud and summer)
up heayah, we got nine months a' winter, and three months a' damn poor sleddin'...
formerly known as etaoin...
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#84492
04/05/2003 2:23 AM
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Jackie
No churlishness noted, here's my three answers :
The rain on the prairies tends to come in downpours which are over soon. In Vancouver the rain can mizzle and drizzle and sprinkle and spit all day. (but when the sun shines the whole place sparkles!)
About the term fannydragger. I lived in England for a while and was told not to use the term fannypack (brit bum bag) as fanny was a rude word for a slightly different portion of the female anatomy. In fact there was nearly a fist fight when a well meaning US'n said it to the female half of an young English couple.
I sympathise about the computer. I don't have one at all except at work and they turn off the heat at 6PM. Now I'm going to stop typing and go home [shiver e]
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#84493
04/05/2003 3:05 AM
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
We had a thunderstorm roll through here earlier that was a real beauty. At one point the thunder rumbled so loud and so long it sounded more like a train going through a long tunnel and I could feel it vibrate the whole house from my second story nest. What would you call that? As far as I know, it wasn't a tornado.
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#84494
04/07/2003 11:57 PM
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Posts: 2,154 |
I'm not sure whether /weather I'd call it terrifying or exilerating!
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#84495
04/08/2003 9:11 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
I love thunder storms. To me, they are totally exhilarating, especially if the lightning is visible.
One of my most enduring memories is standing one summer night on the east end of the "White Cliffs of Dover", watching a thunder and lightning storm out over the English channel. It was na intense storm that lasted for nearly half-an-hour (a long time for such things, over here) with almost continuous lightning. It was like November the Fifth!
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#84497
04/08/2003 11:32 PM
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
The most dramatic storm I remember started with big, fat raindrops coming down while I was waterskiing. Then we heard thunder back in the hills around the lake. I thought "lightning hits the tallest thing around. That would be me, standing here in the middle of the lake with my feet in water!" We headed for shore. Half an hour later we could see lighning arcing down to the surface of the lake about a kilometer away.
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#84498
04/09/2003 7:16 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Yes, that is a lovely poem, maahey. It's years since I last thought of it and have usually just seen the last verse quoted - totally out of context, of course!
Arnold isn't one of my top favourites, but of all his work, that is probably the one that appeals to me most.
Thank you for reminding me of it.
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#84499
04/09/2003 1:54 PM
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 87
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 87 |
maahey - thanks for posting the poem. My church choir is doing this very piece for our spring program. Seeing the poem this way has made me appreciate the words much more (sometimes when rehearsing the music gets in the way of the meaning - too busy working on notes to make sense of it!)
You erudite folks did this earlier with the knitting thread when of troy was asking about clocks - someone (I forget, sorry) posted the verse from "The Nightmare Song" about black socks with gold clocks. Well, my choir was working on that piece just then as well! So I got to explain to all of them about clocks on socks. Pretty neat and what I'd call a real cooincidence!
What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy? -Ursula K. Le Guin, author (1929- )
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#84500
04/09/2003 10:24 PM
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
It sounds like it would be lovely with music.
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