precipitation
noun

- water that falls from the clouds towards the ground, especially as rain or snow
- the quality or state of being precipitate : hastiness
- an act, process, or instance of precipitating especially : the process of forming a precipitate

Merriam-Webster / Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary

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ORIGIN

Late 15th century, precipitacioun meant “a casting down” (of the evil angels from heaven), also, in alchemy “separation of a solid substance from a solution”, from Old French precipitation (15th century) and directly from Latin praecipitationem “act or fact of falling headlong, haste”.

The meaning “sudden haste” is from around 1500 and “the act of falling from a height” from the 1610s.

The meteorological sense of “rain, snow, dew, frost, hail, etc.; moisture from the atmosphere deposited on the earth’s surface” is from the 1670s.

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INTERESTING WEATHER IDIOMS

- storm in a teacup = there are other variations of this idiom, such as ‘tempest in a teapot’ (used in American English) and the suspected original, ‘tempest in a ladle’, coined by the Roman statesman Cicero. All of these refer to a small problem or event which has been blown out of proportion.

- to be snowed under = to have so much to do that you’re overwhelmed (I’d love to meet you for lunch but I’m completely snowed under)

- lightning never strikes the same place twice  = people use this idiom as assurance that once someone has endured unfortunate circumstances it isn’t going to happen again. Interestingly, there are actually several recorded instances of lightning striking the same place on multiple occasions. For example, the Empire State Building gets struck by lightning about 23 times a year.

- the calm before the storm = the unnatural stillness experienced before a storm breaks, and can be used to describe a period of calm before a crisis.

- a face like thunder = to look extremely angry (He came into the office with a face like thunder, and we had no reason to know why)

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WHETHER THE WEATHER

Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot,
We’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.

Anonymous

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SYNONYMS

storm, drizzle, rain, rainstorm, thunderstorm, cloudburst, rainfall, sleet, hail stones, hailstorm, hail, snow, downpour, deluge, shower, Scotch mist, driving rain, cat-and-dog weather, frozen rain, squall, trickle, drencher, PRECIPITATION, pouring, sheets, monsoon, liquid sunshine, sun shower, soaker

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SMUGGLE OWAD into today’s conversation, say something like:

“It’s really difficult to determine whether PRECIPITATION over the past days is really a result of general global warming.”

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40