Sunshower

This article is about the meteorological phenomenon. For commercial products with the name "Sunshower", see Sunshower (commercial product). For the Thelma Houston album, see Sunshower (album). For the song, see Sunshowers.
A sunset sunshower in the Mojave desert

A sunshower or sun shower is a meteorological phenomenon in which rain falls while the sun is shining.[1] A sunshower is usually the result of accompanying winds associated with a rain storm sometimes miles away, blowing the airborne raindrops into an area where there are no clouds. Hence, a sunshower. Sometimes a sunshower is created when a single rain cloud passes overhead, and the Sun's angle keeps it from being obstructed.

Sunshower conditions often lead to the appearance of a rainbow, if the sun is at a low enough angle.[1] Although used in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Britain, the term "sunshower" is rarely found in dictionaries.[2] Additionally, the phenomenon has a wide range of sometimes remarkably similar folkloric names in cultures around the world.[3] A common theme is that of clever animals and tricksters getting married or related to the devil, although many variations of this theme are in existence.[2][3]

Folkloric names

A sunshower over Waller creek in Austin, Texas.


India

Devils

In the United States, particularly in the Southern United States, and in Hungary as well, a sunshower is said to show that "the devil is beating his wife" (or, more rarely, "the devil is beating his wife with a walking stick") because he is angry God created a beautiful day. The rain is said to be his wife's tears. A regional variant from Tennessee is "the devil is kissing his wife".[6][7] In French, the phrase is "Le diable bat sa femme et marie sa fille"[8] (i.e., "the devil is beating his wife and marrying his daughter"). In the Netherlands they say that there is a "funfair going on in hell".[9] In St. Kitts and Nevis, when rain is falling and the sun is shining, it is said that 'D devil a bang he wife'. In Liberia, it is said that "the devil is fighting with his wife over a chicken bone."

Other variations

Modern cultural references

Poster for Akira Kurosawa's 1990 film "Dreams", which features a fox wedding

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Symonds, Steve, Weather Terms - Wild Weather, 2004, ABC North Coast, Retrieved November 2006.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Quinion, Michael, Monkey's Wedding, 2001, World Wide Words, Retrieved November 2006
  3. 1 2 Vaux, Bert, Sunshower summary, 1998,linguistlist.org, retrieved November 2006
  4. "Taaloord - Taalberigte". Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  5. "Mieliestronk se lys van Afrikaanse idiome". Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  6. "Sunshower". Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  7. "Sunshower Devil Thread". Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  8. Samson, D. N. (1920). English into French: Five Thousand English Locutions Rendered into Idiomatic French, London: Humphrey Milford at Oxford University Press (digital copy at Archive.org, OCLC 259775152), p. 102: "It rains and shines at the same time : Le diable bat sa femme et marie sa fille"
  9. "kermis in de hel Nederlands spreekwoordenboek". Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  10. "A year of words". Waywordradio.org.
  11. "Слепой дождь". dic.academic.ru.

Bibliography

External links

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