Tuesday, January 13, 2009

How many English words are there for precipitation?

The snow has finally gone away from Vancouver's West End! Three Cheers for the warmer weather! It's amazing how many people are swearing they will never complain about rain again... at least for a few days anyway (of course that lasts as long as the average new year's resolution, we do love to complain about the weather). So how many different ways can weather forecasters describe precipitation? This is the list I've come up with so far:

• accumulation
• blizzard
• blowing snow
• cloudburst
• deluge
• downpour
• drizzle
• electrical storm
• endless rain
• flood
• flurries
• fog
• freezing drizzle
• freezing rain
• gale
• hurricane
• ice pellets
• light rain
• lightning storm
• maelstrom
• mist
• monsoon
• pouring
• precipitation
• rain
• rain showers
• rainfall
• raining buckets
• raining cats & dogs
• rainstorm
• relentless rain
• severe thunderstorm
• showers
• sleet
• slush
• snow
• snow dump
• snow showers
• snow squall
• snowfall
• sprinkle
• storm
• storm surge
• thunderstorm
• torrent

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