By Neal Lemery
“It’s fixin to rain,” my grandmother would say, as she shooed the chickens out of the chicken yard and into the coop, bribed by a handful of corn.
She’d grab the last of the laundry off the line, as well as the pan of drying beans she had set out a few days ago. Grandpa had already started the evening milking, the cows lining up early. They too had sensed the coming of the rain. It had been late in coming, last week’s morning drizzle just a tantalizing hint of what was to come. After all, it was October. We were overdue for the deluges of Fall.
Grandma was seldom wrong about the weather. “I can just feel it” she would say, crediting her father for having a “weather sense”, as she would call it. She was my most reliable weather expert, and I often miss her “old timer” vocabulary and farm stories.
These days, there is an app on my phone for weather forecasts, as well as an abundance of satellite pictures, websites, TV channels, and social media posts. I can also call my farmer, logger, and fisher friends, who also seem to have generational senses of what the weather is up to.
I’m a native Oregonian, and I would be the first to admit I love a good, soaking rain. My closet has several kinds of raincoats, along with my “old reliable” raincoat, which never seems to get out of the backseat of my pickup, even in the summer. I’m also one of those people who never uses an umbrella, except if I’m wearing my “good clothes” for a special formal event. Rainy days find me in a good mood, and I’ve been known to sing along with the radio or bring out my own versions of tunes, with the windshield wipers being the rhythm section.
American English has sparse vocabulary for the rainy season. With the coming rain, it’s time to again look at how the Scottish folks have filled the gap. Borrowing from them now will enrich our conversations, and hopefully inspire some poetry or song writing.
We need to get prepared. After all, it’s fixin’ to rain.
General Words for Rain
•Uisge: The Scottish Gaelic word for water and rain (used in phrases like tha an t-uisge ann, meaning “it is raining”).
•Smirr (or smur): A fine, soft, misty drizzle that drifts in the air.
•Mizzle: A mix of mist and light drizzle.
•Haar: A cold, damp sea fog or coastal drizzle.
Words for Heavy or Specific Rain
•Dreich: A classic term for bleak, grey, wet, and miserable weather.
•Drookit: The state of being completely drenched or soaked through.
•Stottin (or stoatin): Extremely heavy rain bouncing off the ground.
•Thunder-plump: A sudden, heavy tropical-style downpour or thunderstorm
https://www.gilligans-isl.com/100-words-for-rain-in-scottish
10/8/2026
