Precipitous Palaver

As quickly as that, the rainy season seems to have descended upon us here in Puget Sound, and with it un-parseable weather forecasts such as “rain, turning to showers” that make almost no sense until you recall reading somewhere that the Northwest Coast indians had over 100 different words for “rain”.  I can’t find a citation, so I’m not sure if this was true or not, or if the original words and their nuances have been lost.


In celebration of the rainy season’s onset, then, I’d like to start a meme (use the comments below) to help us Northwesterners appreciate and describe the multiplicity of rain personalities we’ll be gazing at from under our parka hoods in the months ahead.  Here, I’ll start:




    1. The rain that makes the music that impels mosquitoes to mate
    2. The rain that rusts the Chevy but not the Pontiac
    3. The rain that hits the back of your neck, sluices down your spine without warming appreciably, and thoroughly soaks your thong underwear
    4. The rain that peels your window trim down to bare wood but doesn’t remove the dirt on the glass
    5. The rain that dissolves pigeon crap off the gargoyles downtown and plops into your latte when you’re not looking (”Blah!  I didn’t order soy milk!”, you say.)

We probably can’t get to 100, but give it a whirl!