Rain Lover Confession
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Hi I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is The Weather Notebook. Commentator David Laskin, today, makes a confession about his favorite weather.

It's not that I'm especially fond of cold water trickling down my back or the smell of towels that never dry or the used Kleenex look of congested clouds - but I have to admit that there's something about rain that I find absolutely thrilling. I know I know - most people, immediate family included, think I need to have my head examined. Rain, they keep telling me, is bad weather - bad bad bad. It's depressing. Mildew-inducing. Mud-generating. Sorry, but I prefer to see the world through rain-tinted lenses.

I doubt I'll make any converts, but bear with me while I hymn the wonders of rain. Aside from the obvious practical benefits to our crops and bathrooms, rain is incredibly dramatic. Nice weather is so monotonous - check the almanac and you'll know exactly when the sun will rise and set, and how the sky will brighten and fade as the world turns beneath a cloudless sky. Boring. But a rainy day, or better yet a rainy week, is like a big, long juicy novel - Bleak House or One Hundred Years of Solitude - full of dark foreshadowing, unbearable suspense, violent pressures, climactic outbursts, and eerie lulls. And rain is so beautiful to watch and listen to.

This may sound weird, but rain just makes me feel rich. To me, raindrops really are pennies from heaven.

The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mt. Washington Observatory and is supported by the National Science Foundation.