The Smell of Rain

I’m not sure how it is for the rest of the world, but here in Texas, we can smell the rain. 

I’m sure in some parts of the USA, or of the world, rain is falling almost every day and so, it seems a bit less remarkable, less memorable.  But here in Texas, we get spells during Spring, Summer and Fall where it won’t rain, sometimes for weeks at a time.  In the heat, the sun bakes the last bit of moisture out of everything.  When rain finally comes, the first drops seems to liberate the sweet, fresh smell of grass and other thirsty plants, and the scent is carried to us on the cool breeze that signals an oncoming thunderstorm.

I visited New York a few years ago and stayed at the home of a friend of mine, out on Long Island.  He set me up in a bed room, and all went to bed.  Before long, I noticed that the windows in the room were open.  This seemed awfully strange to me, because in hot, humid Houston we rarely would consider opening a window as a means to cool a room.  But, open they were and I began to notice how quiet it was.  In that part of Long Island, the houses are spread well apart, which makes for wonderful, quiet evenings. 

Then, I noticed the sound of approaching rain.  It fell straight down, without the wind blowing it about.  It fell almost silently as the cloud slipped by overhead.  A gentle, steady, cool rain fell on the lawn and the trees outside.  No thunder, no lightning, no gusty wind, just sweet, softly falling rain.  Very strange to me.  I got up to check that the rain wasn’t coming in the windows, but without wind to carry it, none tried to enter. I relaxed and listened as it slowly, softly passed over the house, and was gone.

That is NOT the way it rains in Texas.  For us, it’s more of an exciting event.  During the winter months, the rain is a bit gentler.  We get “waves” of clouds and rain carried on storm fronts that slide down to us from the northwest corner of the country.  But in the early spring, the warmth and humidity of the Gulf of Mexico seem to push back against those fronts, causing them to slide to the east rather than coming this far south.  As the warm, moist air rushes north to meet the oncoming fronts, tornadoes, high winds and hail are the result. 

Seventy-Five percent of the world’s tornadoes happen in the area between the Rocky Mountains and the US East Coast, and between the US Gulf Coast and the Canadian border.  A few percent happen along the southern border inside Canada, and the rest are spread around the rest of the world.  This year, the upper level Jet Streams have shifted a bit north.  The storm and tornado activity has also pushed a bit north, out of the Houston and Gulf Coast area, concentrating in the Central and Mid-Western areas.  The number of tornadoes is running almost exactly double what it was this time last year, resulting in substantial destruction and almost 600 deaths.

So at this moment, the wind is blowing outside.  The trees are swaying back and forth, and the sky is growing dark.  It’s been perhaps 16 weeks since we have had measurable rainfall in Houston.  As the sky flashes, and the windows rattle from the thunder, we hope for rain, and hope we don’t blow away in the process.

It smells really great outside !

- Mark W. Laughlin