Posted yesterday morning on Facebook:
"Dear Rain: Please come down! The garden misses you."
Looks like the rain was listening. And how. Well, I shouldn't be surprised - Dan Kim has an in with the Weather Goddess & said he'd pass along my plea.
Looks like the result is indeed going to be a gullywasher. In fact, Dan had mentioned that exact term.
Pat Byrnes had made me chuckle by asking where the gullies of Manhattan were.
I said Manhattan was more canyon than gully, so maybe the appropriate term for a Manhattan deluge was "canyonwasher".
As far as I know, we don't really have a good local colloquialism for a fast, heavy rainstorm, which is weird, since lord knows we have some good ones here. Toad-strangler & gullywasher both have something of a rural flavor to them. Raining cats & dogs is kind of generic.
I have a couple of ideas that might be good.
We could call a serious NYC downpour a "subwaystopper" - because when too much water gets into the subway system too fast, everything grinds to a halt.
Or maybe we could call it an "outfaller".
Area kayakers, dinghy sailors and open-water swimmers will know exactly what I mean.
7 comments:
It won't be an "outfaller" anymore...
when it rains a lot (4 inches in may)
what used to happen at a certain kayak spot will now all go to Coney Island...and make the famous Coney Island Whitefish come true...etc.Not kidding...
Quote from the DEP report about the new $400 million dollar holding tanks, when they are full, if ever:
Within the facility, a pumping station helps send the retained wastewater back to the Coney Island Wastewater Treatment Plant after the rain subsides.
Located in Sheepshead Bay, the Coney Island plant provides treatment for 110 million gallons of wastewater at average conditions, but it has a capacity to treat 220 million gallons of wastewater for the 685,000 New Yorkers it serves.
I like subway stopper but I'm originally from the part of Queens that doesn't have any--and Queens has been suffering from an inferiority complex since 69 when they forgot to plow after two blizzards. On the other hand that was the year of the "Miracle Mets" so maybe it evened out. But I like the Yankees
You did ask for rain. :-)
"Here Comes The Rain!" ... and there goes the power. That great picture of Doppler radar shows a big red and orange splotch that passed through our neighborhood and left me sitting more than figuratively in the dark. Oh, well. That's life in the country. At least it passed through early enough for some of the group to get out and paddle last night. I guess you could say that this storm was not a paddle-pooper.
Ah, Anonymous, our life (and water) has improved, but we are just one tiny little spot.
Still, it was awfully nice to have a week of rain before the open house and not have to explain "But it doesn't smell this way all the time!", wasn't it?
Dan, Ol' P may've been left sitting in the dark, but he did get to paddle, and I think my garden was probably delighted, and "storm damage" is part of a minor header far far down the Weather.com front page -- compliments to W.G.!
raining too much here too, and unseasonally cold which is affecting the garden veg....
I can't think of a polite description for the rain.
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