Ark-worthy

rainy

Pronunciation: 'rA-nE
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): rain�i�er; -est
Date: before 12th century

: marked by, abounding with, or bringing rain

It's a wet spell.

On a similar theme, don't you think a "cold snap" is a wonderful understatement for a few days of bitterly cold weather.

"rainy" doesn't work. It's an adjective; drought is a noun. I'm looking for a noun that means "an extended period of time with lots and lots of precipitation," rather than a word that describes the weather at a point in time. I believe a monsoon is a single storm which, alghough it may last a few days, doesn't quite do the trick.

monsoon has to do with wind in India

monsoons are a wind directional shift that occurs in the Indian Ocean. The shift causes increased rainfall. The term "monsoon" is more similar to the term "winter", than it is to the antonym of "drought."

think of it this way:

"We are having a drought."

Fill in drought with a rainy equivalent, and you have your answer.
How about flood?

How about "Seattle Mist"

...missed Seattle, hit Vancouver...

Monsoon -The word "monsoon" appears to have originated from the Arabic word mausim which means season. It is most often applied to the seasonal reversals of the wind direction along the shores of the Indian Ocean, especially in the Arabian Sea, that blow from the southwest during one half of the year and from the northeast during the other. As monsoons have come to be better understood, the definition has been broadened to include almost all of the phenomena associated with the annual weather cycle within the tropical and subtropical continents of Asia, Australia and Africa and the adjaacent seas and oceans. It is within these regions that the most vigorous and dramatic cycles of weather events on the earth takes place.
- from The Elementary Monsoon by Peter Webster.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is not considered tropical or subtropical. The extended periods of time in which it rains almost every day are not dramatic or vigouous; the rain is often a gentle mist and is seldom the hard deluge that one sees in the summer in the midwest US. There may be a breeze, but strong wind is unusual. I don't think monsoon works because Vancouver isn't tropical or subtropical; the rain isn't associated with seasonal reversals of the wind direction along the shores of the Indian Ocean; and we do not see the most vigorous and dramatic cycles of weather events on the earth taking place here.

From Appendix III of Major World Crop Areas and Climatic Profiles(Handbook of Agriculture #664)Published by the Joint Agricultural Weather Facility (USDA/NOAA):

The Indian Monsoon and Its Impact on Agriculture
A monsoon is defined as a seasonal shift in wind direction, being derived from the Arabic word "mausim", meaning season (3). The word itself does not mean heavy rain, although the misnomer is not baseless. In a true monsoon climate, seasonal wind shifts typically cause a drastic change in the general precipitation and temperature patterns. However, the monsoon may also be associated with dry weather as well, since the "wet" monsoon phase of warm, moist air is seasonally replaced by a "dry" monsoon of cool, dry air. This phenomenon is the dominant feature of low-latitude climates stretching from West Africa to the western Pacific Ocean.

My friend Doug suggests "wetska" as a new word for what I described.

Bill,

While sitting at Death by Chocolate this evening with my two daughters, I posed your question to them. "What is the opposite of drought?" Without a clear answer, I then asked "What new word may describe the Vancouver experience?" Christin suggested "wought".

Now initially I suggested that wought was wussy, but I had to admit that the wought weather system has a clearly wussy feel. To appreciate the word one must use it in a few sentences.

Vancouver is weathering a wought!

Will this wought wind up soon?

How about this wought.

Given this word structure one may also suggest that a snow season could be a snought. Therefore where Alberta tends to go from drought to snought; Vancouver just goes from wought to wought.

What makes a wought so depressing is when you find yourself commenting that the sky is brighter today [rather than the sky is sunny]. To be positive about the clouds being just a little less gloomy is definitely living in a wought.

Well, that was Christin's suggestion. If you like it, it's yours.

Doug

The fact that you were sitting at a place called Death By Cholocate is extraordianarily cruel...where is it, and how do I get there?
Oh, and I like "wought." But I like chocolate more....

Aaron Reneker

If the opposite of a drought is a form of drunkenness, I would suggest either a "binge" of wet weather, or, with a nod to localized weather and wit in Vancouver, the thought that the city is "vin-couvert" with a frequent spill and spell of wet weather.

flood.

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Topic:	Ark-worthy (1 of 2), Read 65 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	David Bergman ([email protected])
Date:	Saturday, July 24, 1999 09:58 PM

Hello, I'm not a "word person" but I do have a graduate degree in Geography. When I lectured to undergraduates we refereed to a prolonged wet period as a pluval period or just a pluval. I think it comes from the latin word for rain. An example of the words usage would be: "during a pluvial period temporary lakes form which are ephemeral in nature."

Does this work for you?