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Sunshower

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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 sunshower over a parking lot.

A sunshower or sun shower is a meteorological phenomenon in which rain falls while the sun is shining.[1] These 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 trickster animals, or the devil, getting married, although many variations of parts of this theme exist.[2][3]

Meteorology

Sunlight-refraction diagram of rainbow formation, created by Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650).

The nature of cumuluform clouds is such that the sun can often be seen while they are producing rain.[1]

Anecdotally, a sunshower is said to be a sign that rain will occur again soon, specifically that it will rain the next day.[1]

Folkloric names

A sunshower over Waller creek in Austin, Texas.

Animals

  • In South African English, a sunshower is referred to as a "monkey’s wedding", a loan translation of the Zulu umshado wezinkawu, a wedding for monkeys.[2] In Afrikaans, it is referred to as jakkalstrou,[2] jackals wedding, or also Jakkals trou met wolf se vrou as dit reën en die son skyn flou, meaning: "Jackal marries Wolf's wife when it rains and the sun shines faintly."
  • In Hindi, it is also called "the foxes wedding".[2]
  • In Konkani, it is called "a monkey's wedding".
  • In Sinhala, it is called "the foxes wedding".
  • In Bengali, it is called "a devil's wedding".
  • In Brazil, people say "Rain and sun (chuva e sol), Snail's (caracol) wedding", "Sun and rain (sol e chuva), Widow's (viúva) marriage", or "Casamento da Raposa" (Fox's Wedding).
  • In Arabic, the term is "the rats are getting married".[2]
  • In Korea, a male tiger gets married to a fox.
  • In Japan, it is known as "kitsune no yomeiri", or "the kitsune's wedding", and means a fox's wedding ceremony is being held.
  • In Eritrea, the traditional belief is that the hyena is giving birth.
  • In various African languages, leopards are getting married.
  • In Kenya, hyenas are getting married.
  • In Bulgaria, there is a saying about the bear marrying.[2]
  • In Tamil Nadu, South India, the Tamil speaking people say that the fox and the crow/raven are getting married.
  • In Mazandarani language, in north of Iran, it is also called "the jackal’s wedding".
  • In parts of the United Kingdom, it is referred to as "a monkey's birthday".
  • In Pashto, it is also called "Da gidarh wade" or "the jackal's wedding".
  • In Hawaii, it is known as "Ghost Rain".
  • In El Salvador, the traditional belief is that the deer is giving birth.

Devils

In the United States, particularly the South, a sunshower is said to show that "the devil is beating his wife"; a regional variant from Tennessee is "the devil is kissing his wife".[4][5] In French, the phrase is "Le diable bat sa femme et marie sa fille"[6] (i.e., "the devil is beating his wife and marrying his daughter").

Other variations

In Lithuanian and Estonian (vaeslapse pisarad), the phenomenon is described as "orphans' tears", where the sun is the grandmother drying those tears. In Russian, it is called грибной дождь (gribnoy dozhd'), "mushroom rain", as such conditions are considered favorable to growing mushrooms.[7]

In Indonesian, the phenomenon is the sign of someone who is rich and well known is died in the place where the sunshower happened. So the sky showing its condolences.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Symonds, Steve, Weather Terms - Wild Weather, 2004, ABC North Coast, Retrieved November 2006.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Quinion, Michael, Monkey's Wedding, 2001, World Wide Words, Retrieved November 2006
  3. ^ a b Vaux, Bert, Sunshower summary, 1998,linguistlist.org, retrieved November 2006
  4. ^ Sunshower at Word Detective. Accessed August 6, 2007.
  5. ^ Sunshower Devil Thread on Snopes.com. Accessed August 6, 2007.
  6. ^ 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"
  7. ^ KPBS > KPBS Radio, 89.5 FM San Diego > A Way with Words

Bibliography

  • Blust, Robert (1998) The Fox's Wedding. Manuscript, University of Hawaii.
  • Evgen'jeva, A. P., ed. (1985-) Slovar' russkogo jazyka v 4 tomakh, 3rd edition. Moscow.
  • Kuusi, Matti (1957) Regen bei Sonnenschein: Zur Weltgeschichte einer Redensart. "Folklore Fellows Communications" n. 171, Helsinki 1957 (it appeared translated into Italian in the journal "Quaderni di Semantica" 13 (1992) and 14 (1993)).
  • Hoffmann-Krayer, E. (1930–31) Handwrterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens. Berlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter.
  • Akira Kurasawa's film "Dreams" has a segment about a young boy witnessing a fox wedding procession during a sunshower.
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