If I had a dollar for everytime I've heard the title of this blog...well, I wouldn't be writing this thing. Let's just say I'd be on an island somewhere enjoying my sunny retirement, ha-ha-ha!
Seriously though, both showers and rain are wet, right? So how the heck do you tell the difference? It is confusing and people ask me all the time about what the difference is. Well, here are some rules of thumb:
Both rain and showers can be very light....or very heavy. Just because cats and dogs are flying past your window does not necessarily mean it's rain. It might be a heavy shower. And that's the thing that seems most confusing.
In general then...showers are intermittent. On again, off again. It's pouring one minute but the next nothing is falling from the sky. On showery days, this is usually repeated over and over as each line of showers moves by where you are. And sometimes, there are sun breaks in-between these downpours. That's designed to fool you into thinking it's safe to go on a long walk without any rain gear!
We most often see showers after a storm has moved out of our area....because cooler air in its wake helps trigger these on and off showers.
Rain: This is created by a specific storm that is crossing our skies. You can usually identify something as rain because it's continuous (or nearly so) and skies stay cloudy the whole time the storm is moving through. Think of the days in the last week that we've had these all day wet situations...that was rain. Usually storms move faster though, so we might see a few hours of continuous rain from it.
So hopefully that explains the difference without creating more confusion. Just remember: continuous=rain. On and off=showers. That's a pretty good rule of thumb.
Oh, one last thing: enjoy today's showers and downpours. But don't get fooled by the sun breaks--there's probably another shower on the way!
Bruce Sussman
