Healing Rains

    The other day, I was surprised by a sudden rain shower.   While in the garden, everything was bright and sunshiny, then a few moments later, I was being drenched.  Raindrops fell with a delightful burst of energy cooling the afternoon heat...but...that sun just kept on shining!  I was caught in the midst of a sun shower.  It felt good.  It felt refreshing.  I felt as happy as the raindrops seemed to be.

  There are a lot of weird little folktales or myths attached to sun showers.  The most commonly heard is that the devil is beating his wife.  That sounds just about right for the devil but why would it be attached to such a lovely sight as the sun shower?  Nope.  Don't like that one.  Another is that a witch is getting married.  Hmmm?  Well, I guess if she wanted to spend the time to conjure up a weather phenomenon just to be crafty on her wedding day, this would suffice but that is purely up to her, I guess.  Then, there is the belief that a sun shower is the harbinger of severe weather to come the next day at the same time of day.  Since we did not receive a bad storm the next day...rain showers...but not severe, that one is discredited, I suppose.  Most of the other tales were all connected to animals getting married...huh...especially fox.  Alrighty, then.  After digging around in the wonderful world of the internet, I finally came across a "good" thing connected to sun showers.  The rains are supposedly healing.  This...I like!

  To be honest, all rains are healing.  The water heals the earth and allows for life to continue.  Without rainfall, all would soon wither and die.  It does not take a phenomenon such as a sun shower to prove this.  There is a scientific explanation, however.  It seems that sun showers occur when a single cloud jumps the gun and moves ahead of the crowd and drops some rain. The angle of the sun is not blocked by the single cloud allowing for a sun shower.  While this is all well and good, it is not as fun as being all magical and stuff!  I think I shall keep with the healing raindrops.

Sun Showers or "Beam Me Up"

  Yep, there is such a thing as a sun shower but the name is a bit misleading.  A sun shower is when the sun stays visible during a rain shower.  It may be bright and sunny but have a drizzly rain coming down.  This happens often as a small cloud passes over but does not completely block over the entire sky.  It is a localized shower.  It can be raining on one side of the house while the sun is beaming brightly on the other.  It is misleading in the fact that a "rain" shower means that rain is falling to the ground but a "sun" shower means that rain is falling to the ground.  Same thing...not a good name.

  While on the pier yesterday evening, we actually had a true sun shower or at least it appeared to be such.  A large thunderhead blew up from the horizon blocking out the setting sun.  While that huge cloud lingered the sun beamed down between the clouds to shoot rays in what appeared to be a true shower.  We are accustomed to seeing storms look like this with actual rain falling but the sunbeams were something new.  It was gorgeous!  Those beams shot down right on top of my cousin's house.  It sort of reminded me of those nice rays that movie spaceships beamed folks up from Earth.  I better check on my cousin!

Now I am pondering what fine word should be applied to this weather phenomenon.  Since sun shower is already taken, a new name is needed.  "Beam me up, Scotty!" might work but it has been erroneously contributed to Captain Kirk!  (And that is a story for another day.)