Here on Canada's "wet coast" we have as mnay kinds of rain as there are kinds of snow in the north. On the west coast of Vancouver Island the Nuu-Chah-Nulth folks have lots of different names for rain. I'll have to collect some of them some time.



Since I have lived out here I have collected lots of different names for rain too, especially at this time of year, when discerning the differences between types of rain passes for a semi-serious avocation. One day I'll publish the list.



Today though, I invented a new name. Last night's rainfall was heavy and steady, like a summer cloudburst that lasted seven hours. When I looked out at the rain in the cold steely grey morning light it occurred to me that this was "rain-that-is-being-thrown-from-the-sky."