Wacky Facts

Small raindrops are almost spherical; larger ones flatten at the bottom like a hamburger bun as they fall.

Each snowflake forms along a unique path through clouds with different temperature and humidity, giving it a unique shape.

Sitting in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, Leh receives around 100 mm of rain a year.

A typical cumulus cloud holds hundreds of tonnes of water droplets spread over a large volume of air.

Petrichor comes from plant oils and a compound called geosmin, produced by soil bacteria and released when rain hits dry ground.

It forms when air near the surface cools enough for water vapour to condense into droplets.

They turn anticlockwise north of the equator and clockwise south of it, due to the Coriolis effect.

The southwest monsoon, from June to September, brings around 70% or more of India’s yearly rainfall.

The largest recorded in the US measured about 20 cm across, found in South Dakota in 2010.

Lightning heats air so fast it expands explosively. Count seconds between flash and thunder and divide by 3 for km.

The word comes from Arabic “mawsim”, via Portuguese; Indian summer monsoon provides most of the country’s rainfall.

It was measured at Death Valley, California, in July 1913 — though some experts question the reading.

From the ground we see an arc because the horizon cuts it off. From an aircraft, rainbows can appear as complete circles.

Water molecules bond in a hexagonal pattern when they freeze, giving snowflakes six-fold symmetry.