LAUCHIN' RAIN
Any idea what this is?
Well, in today's parlance it is as much as it sounds ie laughing rain.
But that doesn't help much unless your family have a habit of usung this expression. It is afterall a Scottish expression.
In essence it simply means when it rains simultaneously while the sun is shining, possibly from a blue sky. This happens when the cloud cover is variable and fragmented or when the wind at high altitudes brings rain towards you where it is otherwise quite different.
Laughing rain is a great description. There is an inkling of cheerfulness in the atmosphere so created. But there are various other terms for it here in Scotland and around the world.
A light rain on the Leven and the towpath is permeated by sunshine moving from further down. The effect is magical.
This view of a snow clad Ben Lomond was from taken from above Renton just as a rain cloud was drifting eastwards, the late sunshine illuminating snow and cloud.
Its a simple concept and often fascinates through the circumstances of two weathers at one time. It is of course experienced worldwide and finds novel expressions according to local lore.
In South Africa it is called monkey's wedding, a term in English, but an idea borrowed from the Zulu. Some Afrikaners use the term jackals wedding.
In India, in the Marathi languages, it is called a fox's wedding which sounds rather similar.
Variations of these occur with the Bulgarians talking of bears instead.
Many English speaking societies simply call it a sunshower which amply describes it, but is not as pictruesque.
In the US South there is a saying, “The devil’s behind his kitchen door beating his wife with a frying pan”, usually shortened just to “The devil’s beating his wife”. That sounds as though it is meant more for thundery weather. A regional variant used in Tennessee is the "Devil is kissing his wife" (and why that would make her cry is anybody’s guess). The Dutch and Germans say “There’s a party going on in hell”.
Russians speak of mushroom rain and Hawaiians speak of a ghost rain.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND USAGE : https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/524068/a-term-for-its-raining-while-the-sun-is-shining#
WILDLIFE TRUSTS : https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/blog/dominick-tyler/monkeys-birthday-ten-words-british-landscape
