rain

—rainless, adj. —rainlessness, n.

/rayn/, n.

1. water that is condensed from the aqueous vapor in the atmosphere and falls to earth in drops more than ¹/₅₀ in. (0.5 mm) in diameter. Cf. drizzle (def. 6).

2. a rainfall, rainstorm, or shower: We had a light rain this afternoon.

3. rains, the rainy season; seasonal rainfall, as in India.

4. weather marked by steady or frequent rainfall: We had rain most of last summer.

5. a heavy and continuous descent or inflicting of anything: a rain of blows; a rain of vituperation.

v.i.

6. (of rain) to fall (usually used impersonally with it as subject): It rained all night.

7. to fall like rain: Tears rained from their eyes.

8. to send down rain: The lightning flashed and the sky rained on us in torrents.

v.t.

9. to send down in great quantities, as small pieces or objects: People on rooftops rained confetti on the parade.

10. to offer, bestow, or give in great quantity: to rain favors upon a person.

11. to deal, hurl, fire, etc., repeatedly: to rain blows on someone's head.

12. rain cats and dogs, Informal. to rain very heavily or steadily: We canceled our picnic because it rained cats and dogs.

13. rain out, to cause, by raining, the cancellation or postponement of a sports event, performance, or the like: The double-header was rained out yesterday.

[bef. 900; (n.) ME rein; OE regn, ren, c. D, G regen, ON regn, Goth rign; (v.) ME reinen, OE regnian]

Syn. 10. lavish, shower, pour.

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Precipitation of liquid water drops with diameters greater than 0.

02 in. (0.5 mm). When the drops are smaller, the precipitation is usually called drizzle. Raindrops may form by the coalescence of colliding small water droplets or from the melting of snowflakes and other ice particles as they fall into warm air near the ground. Hawaii's Mount Waialeale, with a 20-year annual average of 460 in. (11,700 mm), is the Earth's wettest known point; the driest areas are in parts of deserts where no appreciable rain has ever been observed. Less than 10 in. (250 mm) and more than 60 in. (1,500 mm) per year represent approximate extremes of rainfall for all the continents.

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▪ 2008

Jung Ji Hoon 

born June 25, 1982, Seoul, South Korea

 In 2007 South Korean pop singer and actor Rain topped Time magazine's online poll as the most influential person in the world. Though this status was undoubtedly testament more to the dedication of his fans (who could vote as many times as they wished) than to the true breadth of his influence, Rain was unquestionably a pan-Asian superstar. Often called the Korean Justin Timberlake for his smooth hip-hop dance moves, he dominated the charts throughout East and Southeast Asia and sold out arenas across the region. He also began to parlay some previous acting experience, as well as his boyish good looks and muscular physique, into a movie career. His greatest ambition, however, was to become the first Asian pop star to achieve crossover success in the U.S.; that goal remained unrealized.

      He began performing in his teens as a rapper in a short-lived band called Fanclub. He decided to pursue a solo career, and in 2002 he launched his first album, Bad Guy, with a glittering concert performance that made him a star in South Korea overnight. The following year he starred in a Korean television serial, Sang Doo! Let's Go to School, and released a second album, How to Avoid the Sun. Another successful television soap opera, Full House, followed; it was widely broadcast in Asia. In 2004, following the successful release of his third album, It's Raining, Rain made his first concert tour of Japan. By 2005 he was atop the Korean wave, hallyu, and he was arguably the chief object of the Asian craze for Korean pop culture. His Rainy Day concert tour sold out throughout East Asia; he had become a heartthrob to millions of fans around the world, aided by the Internet and DVDs.

      In 2006 Rain made concert appearances in New York City and Las Vegas, recorded a duet with the American R&B singer Omarion, released his fourth album, Rain's World, and made his film debut in I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK. At the end of the year, a planned world tour ran into trouble, and most of the North American concerts were canceled. Rain, apparently unfazed, continued to study English, and he began work on his first Hollywood movie, Speed Racer, scheduled for release in 2008. He also announced plans for an English-language album. “Once I release my album,” he said, “people can say, ‘Justin Timberlake, he is like an American version of Rain.'”

K. Anne Ranson

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▪ meteorology

      precipitation of liquid water drops with diameters greater than 0.5 mm (0.02 inch). When the drops are smaller, the precipitation is usually called drizzle. See also precipitation.

      Concentrations of raindrops typically range from 100 to 1,000 per cubic m (3 to 30 per cubic foot); drizzle droplets usually are more numerous. Raindrops seldom have diameters larger than 4 mm, because as they increase in size they break up. The concentration generally decreases as diameters increase. Except when the rain is heavy, it does not reduce visibility as much as does drizzle. Meteorologists classify rain according to its rate of fall. The hourly rates relating to light, moderate, and heavy rain are, respectively, less than 2.5 mm, 2.8 to 7.6 mm, and more than 7.6 mm.

      Raindrops may form by the coalescence of small water droplets that collide or from the melting of snowflakes and other ice particles as they fall into warm air near the ground.

      Mount Waialeale (Waialeale, Mount), Hawaii, with a 20-year annual average of 11,700 mm (460 inches) from tropical easterlies, is the wettest known point on the Earth. The nearest competitor is Cherrapunji, Meghālaya, with an annual average of 11,430 mm from the moist tropical monsoon. Less than 250 mm and more than 1,500 mm per year represent approximate extremes of rainfall for all of the continents. Rainfall is slight in the central regions of the subtropical anticyclones, which are therefore the desert regions of the Earth. In parts of the desert no appreciable rain has ever been observed.

       World extremes of recorded rainfallOver most of Europe, South America, eastern North America, and central Africa, the annual rainfall exceeds 500 mm (20 inches), while over most of Asia, excluding India, Tibet, and China, the annual rainfall is less than 500 mm, being less than 250 mm in a long tongue extending from Arabia across to northeast Mongolia. The central regions of Australia, most of northern and a part of southwest Africa, portions of the intermontane area of the United States, and portions of the west-central coast and southern east coast of South America also have less than 250 mm of rain in the year. Portions of the western coast of Africa, between the Equator and 10° N, a strip of the western coast of India, parts of Assam, a coastal strip of Myanmar (Burma), windward mountain slopes in the temperate latitudes of North and South America, and many isolated tropical stations average more than 2,500 mm of rain in the year. Rainfall intensities greater than 30 mm in five minutes, 150 mm in one hour, or 500 mm per day are quite rare, but these intensities on occasion have been more than doubled for the respective durations (see Table (World extremes of recorded rainfall)).

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