Rain

[forestofglory]

It's been a dry rainy season so far, but we are in the middle of a big storm. That means gray days and heavy rains. Rain in the Bay Area isn't like rain anywhere else I've lived. It only comes in the wet season, and when it starts raining in general stays raining for a long time. I remember when I was living in England I had a friend visit me from home, and it started to rain. So I suggested that we duck into a museum for ten minutes to wait it out. My friend was very impressed that this worked. It wouldn't have worked here. Since I grew up here this the way I think rain should be. To this day I find the fact that it can rain and be warm at the same time baffling.

A nice thing about the rain is puddles. The kid has been very excited about putting on her rain boots and going on walks looking for puddles. Our street is pretty well maintained so there aren't at lot of puddles, but that just means we end up going on nice long walks. It's fun to see her enthusiastic to get outside and explore.

Comments

[bemused_writer]

That is definitely a lot of rain. I remember how intense it can get in those areas. I think I've only experience warm/humid rain maybe once in my life? Maybe twice. Amazing that for some areas that's just how it always is. Ahh, that would be a lot of moisture in the air to have all the time. XD

[jack]

That's a lovely description! I like English rain but I like that there's a variety -- having more predictable albeit more continual rain would be relaxing in its own way.

[forestofglory]

Thank you. English rain is nice too, but it was confusing for a while there!

[lunabee34]

Fiona adores puddle stomping.

There's a hole in the street that she can put her bike over and the wheel just spins and spins (because she's balanced on her training wheels over it) and kicks up water all over her back. Best time ever apparently. LOL

[forestofglory]

That sounds like you would both get soaked!

[lunabee34]

Oh I stand waaaaaay back.

LOL

[forestofglory]

That sounds very smart!

[calissa]

Is the Bay Area considered monsoonal? It definitely sounds like there are parallels.

It has been a very wet summer here and it's a little odd to see how green everything is.

[forestofglory]

I usually hear the Bay Area climate referred to as Mediterranean, though I think the actual Mediterranean does get some rain in the summer.

[merit]

I am thinking of a night a few weeks ago where it started raining - and continued raining for the next five years fairly steadily. Though ten minute showers are also possible. Subtropical weather~~

[mrissa]

This reminds me of when my friend's aunt from Wales was here in northern North America and could not wrap her head around the idea that a winter day that is bright and clear here is colder than a grey cloudy one. "Your hat, [name], your hat, you'll want it, it's colder today," we'd say, and she'd blink at us in confusion and say, "Oh no, but it's so sunny out." And for natives to northern North America, yes, that's the point, sunny out, better bundle up, but apparently in Wales, completely the opposite.

[forestofglory]

Our coldest winter days are also the sunny ones. (Not that you would consider them cold)

[mrissa]

Yah, I lived in the Bay Area for four years.

[forestofglory]

I don't think I knew that.

[mrissa]

It is one of the least plausible mundane facts about me. People hear it and think, oh, but...not really, though? And to be fair, that's sort of how it felt at the time. Some people could live anywhere, really; me, I am a creature of the north.

[forestofglory]

It is indeed hard to image you living anywhere without snow.

[mrissa]

I have a hard time figuring out when things happened in those four years that we lived out there, because there was not the rhythm of the snow times to set my brain clock.

[owlmoose]

I think fondly on warm rain. Summer thunderstorms are one of the few things I miss about living in the Midwest. But I've lived here long enough that I now associate rain with cold, and it's always a bit weird to go to the tropics or other places with tropical rainstorms.