Rain and showers are different, and finding out what they mean could change your day for the better.
Rain or showers are often mentioned in weather forecasts, but did you know that they often have a very different ‘feel’ to them?
It will rain intermittently during the day during showers, while it will rain continuously for hours at a time during rain.
Showers
In technical terms, showers are a type of rain, but they usually fall from individual clouds, so the rain will come and go and give way to periods of drier and brighter weather. In one town, they have dry weather all day, while in another town it’s quite hit-and-miss on and off.
Even if the weather looks bright, it’s usually best to prepare to get rained on on days when a shower is forecast. It may rain on some days, then stay dry on others. On some days, there will be frequent showers, on others it may just rain briefly.
Rain
A weather front usually brings a continuous grey sky, with rain falling throughout most of the day. This type of rainfall is sometimes referred to as ‘persistent rain’ or ‘prolonged rainfall’ by weather forecasters.
In terms of duration and intensity of downpours, the key differences relate to the types of clouds that cause them to form.
A difference in size and duration
Rain
As a general rule, we refer to rain as the precipitation that falls from weather fronts. There is a front when two different bodies of air come together at a boundary. Stratus clouds (such as stratus, altostratus, and nimbostratus) may cover hundreds of miles in frontal clouds.
Precipitation is spread over a wide area when frontal rain extends over a large area.
Consequently, frontal rain is hard to avoid since it usually extends the entire length of the front. They are usually associated with unsettled weather and can last for a day or two.
Showers
The convective clouds that produce showers, on the other hand, are called cumulus clouds. Generally, cumulus clouds that carry rain have a fluffy, cauliflower-like appearance and are taller than they are wide.
It usually contains ice rather than water droplets and it is the largest cumulus cloud, known as cumulonimbus. In comparison to a body of cloud associated with a front, cumulonimbus clouds are not as large as they appear from the ground.
As cumulonimbus clouds mature, they become tens of thousands of feet high and many miles wide, but are relatively narrow compared to frontal clouds. Cumulonimbus clouds last from minutes to hours, whereas frontal rain can last for days. Therefore, cumulonimbus clouds are associated with sudden and brief showers.
A difference in process and formation
Rain
Mass ascent is the primary method by which fronts produce rain. Air bodies are lifted bodily upward by other air bodies during mass ascent. Cooled air condenses into clouds and rain when it cools.
Showers
Precipitation is produced by convection in showers. When a cumulus cloud or cumulonimbus cloud begins as a buoyant air bubble rising upwards in the atmosphere, it will eventually form a cumulonimbus cloud. A cumulus cloud forms when a bubble of air cools as it rises, giving it its distinctive cauliflower-like top. As buoyant air ascends into surrounding air, its cauliflower-like head represents the place where it continues to ascend. A cumulus cloud will produce rain once it reaches an appropriate depth or temperature. Cumulus clouds are often characterized by downdraughts that drop rain. Downdraughts usually suppress the updraughts that caused cumulus clouds to form in the first place, which limits their life span.
