Can you feel it, raining in the air tonight? Oh, Lord
With the sun shining the way it is, it’s easy to forget that we spend most of the year in darkness.
Living in Manchester, specifically, it’s considered irresponsible not to carry an umbrella — yet many of us, myself included, often leave it behind.
But when the rain inevitably arrives, that strange feeling you get just before it starts pouring isn’t all in your head.
There’s actually an ongoing internet debate about whether people can truly smell rain.
On X, many users have shared their frustration about friends not believing they can smell rain coming.
One person wrote, “Just told a group of friends that a pop-up storm was coming because I could smell it, and they looked at me like I was crazy.”
Many people reckon they can smell when rain is coming (Getty Stock Images)
“I can — and as much as I’d rather it didn’t rain, it is a delightful smell,” one person said.
Another agreed, “People looked at me like I was crazy when I said it smelled like it was going to rain.”
Smelling the rain before it rains is a real thing
Can you smelllll when the rain is coming? (Getty Stock Images)
Now, believers say there’s often a distinct scent detected before a rainstorm.
Australian scientists Isabel Joy Bear and Richard G. Thomas once named this smell “petrichor.”
The word comes from Greek: petros means stone (like in petrify), and ichor is the fluid said to flow through the veins of Greek gods.
The term was coined in 1964 to describe the earthy, pleasant smell that rises when rain falls on dry soil.
What does the ability to smell rain actually feel like?
It rains a lot here (Getty Stock Images)
Those who can smell rain before it falls often describe it as a “unique feeling.”
“I’m one of those people. I’m not sure exactly what I’m smelling. Sometimes I even smell a shower that ends up missing me,” one person shared on Quora.
“They say it’s probably not ozone, because I can smell rain even when there’s no thunderstorm.
“One of my earliest memories is sitting on our screened porch during a rain, just enjoying the smell. We moved out of that house when I was five years old.”
Another person from Florida added, “It’s easy to smell rain and ozone — that’s the smell you associate with storms.
“When a heavy storm is coming, you can smell the rain and the ozone, and you can also feel the barometric pressure dropping.”
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image