KNOWLEDGE IS SHOWER

Learn some fascinating facts about rain from the Met Office

APRIL may be famous for its showers, but what do we really know about the rain?

Yes, it’s wet. Yes, it falls from the sky. And yes, it always seems to happen when you’ve just had your hair done.

But did you know rain comes in different colours? Or that raindrops are actually shaped like jellybeans?

If your weather knowledge is as cloudy as mine, you might want to read these facts from the Met Office.

Rain doesn’t always hit the ground:

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This happens when rain that’s falling from a cloud evaporates as it approaches the surface. This creates a Virga cloud, which tends to extend down from a cloud, like a tail.

You can smell the rain:

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When raindrops fall on dusty or clay soils, they trap tiny air bubbles on the surface which then shoot upward and throw scent into the air. The smell of rain is known as petrichor.

■ On average, December is the wettest UK month: The long-term average rainfall for December is 127mm, while May has the lowest average rainfall for a month, with 71mm.

■ Raindrops fall at an average speed of 14mph: This would mean, from a cloud height of around 2,500ft, a raindrop would take just over two minutes to reach the ground. The smallest raindrops can take seven minutes to fall. ■ The wettest place in the world is in India: The village of Mawsynram, in the north-east, gets an average of 11,971mm rainfall each year. The UK’s average annual rainfall is 1,163mm.

■ Rain isn’t shaped like a teardrop: When rain forms, droplets are a spherical shape. As they fall and hit other raindrops, the air makes the bottom of the drop flatten and curve, making it more of a jellybean shape.

■ Five of the UK’s 10 wettest years have occurred since 2000: This is according to data that goes back to 1836 and is in line with climate change trends of a warmer and wetter UK.

■ It’s better to run through rain – mostly: Research suggests that if you want to stay drier when caught in some rain, the best way is to run rather than walk, although there are exceptions when you factor in wind speed and direction!

■ The wettest day recorded in the UK was on December 5, 2015: 341mm of rain was recorded at Honister Pass in Cumbria in just 24 hours, during Storm Desmond.

■ Red rain? It can happen: Sometimes high concentrations of redcoloured dust particles get mixed into rain, giving it a red appearance as it falls. This ‘blood rain’ is relatively rare, but in 2001 the southern Indian state of Kerala reported red rain which was dark enough to stain clothes.

■ The Met Office provides weather and climate forecasts for the UK. See metoffice.gov.uk

Splashing raindrops