Now *that's* rain!

So yesterday I heaved myself sullenly to the mall and bought a pair of waterproof (Gortex-lined) shoes. They didn't have the boot style in my size, so I got the shoes, with the lower cut. So today it rained like a motherf***er on my walk to work. It rained so hard that it soaked through the back of my jeans and soaked the top of my socks, which then wicked water into my shoes. Guess I'm gonna need boots after all.

Pineapple express

One of the great local weather terms is "pineapple express," which is the type of rain storm we are having right now. It's caused by warm, moist air streaming up here from the vicinity of Hawaii, thus the pineapple. I told my Indian co-worker that today felt tropical, and she said, "Yeah, it reminds me of the monsoons, except not quite so warm." Well, it's in the mid-60s, which is plenty warm for here, and it feels damned muggy inside. I was definitely getting flashes of Yap on the walk to work this morning.

The registrar called it a "Chinook wind," which was a term I'd never heard before. According to this wikipedia entry, it has different meanings west and east of the Rockies, with the meaning in the west being identical to pineapple express.

So how many names for rain do we have around here?