Friday Trivia: All about the rain

Whilst on the topic of weather (last Friday was about cyclones) I often hear the weatherman telling me we may have a "shower or two" or "a few showers" and typical me, wondered what it really meant - here are my findings!!

Some made me laugh!! 

Showers: Usually begin and end suddenly. Relatively short-lived, but may last half an hour. Often, but not always, separated by blue sky. 
 
Rain: In contrast to showers, rain is steadier and normally falls from stratiform (layer) cloud. Liquid water drops greater than 0.5 mm in diameter.
 
Drizzle: Fairly uniform precipitation composed exclusively of very small water droplets (less than 0.5 mm in diameter) very close to one another.
 
Thundery rain: Rain with embedded thunderstorms.
 
Shower or two: Not many, less than a few. Used to describe showers occurring infrequently.
 
Few showers: Not many, amounting to a small number. Used to describe a small number of showers over a time period.
 
Isolated showers: Showers which are well separated in space (ie. generally covering 10 to 25% of the area) during a given period.

Local showers: Restricted to relatively small areas.
 
Patchy showers: Usually associated with rain. Occurring irregularly over an area (ie. generally covering 10 to 25% of the area).
 
Scattered showers: Irregularly distributed over an area (ie. generally covering 25 to 55% of the area). Showers which, while not widespread, can occur anywhere in an area. Implies a slightly greater incidence than isolated.
 
Widespread: 
For rain: Occurring extensively throughout an area (ie. generally covering 25 to 55% of the area). 
For showers: Occurring extensively throughout an area (ie. generally covering over 55% of the area).
 
Source: Bureau of Meteorology
 
 
~oOo~

Comments

  1. Well.. I'm glad they cleared all that up for us!
    We could NEVER have guessed what they really meant ;-D
    umm..I think I'll just stick to looking out my window and observing the day for myself, thank you very much!
    Thanks Jo - that was fun!
    blessings..Trish

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  2. I never knew there was a difference that could be defined like that! I had no idea that some meant how heavy the rain would be and some the area that would be effected etc. Makes sense that the different terms actually MEAN something though. This was really interesting and educational! :)

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  3. Jo,

    Goodness! With all those variations of rain and showers, it kind of makes my head spin! :) Still, it was interesting to read, as I didn't really know there were so many diffrent types of showers.

    What weather topic do you plan on covering next week? :)

    -Lady Rose

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  4. Lady Rose - no next week will have nothing to do with the weather!! A completely different topic:)

    But isn't it fascinating all the different types of rain and showers!

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