Terminology

[nebulozor]

Hello. I'm a French weather forecaster and I need write weather reports in English.

Can you explain me the difference between "patchy rain", "occasional rain", "intermittent rain" and "outbreaks of rain"? Thank you very much!

[ZONE 51]

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welcome to the forums!

patchy rain this can mean dry periods but some areas of rain around, the rain-variable or random, or on and off.

when we use the term occasional rain then this means rain at times-sometimes not raining and of course not raining at points in the period, intermittent rain is on and off through the spell of rain-sometimes not raining!

so i can understand why its confusing with these terms!

one thing i do notice with these terms is that patchy rain when stated is usually light rain, wheres the occasional rains can be moderate or heavy.

Edited June 25, 2011 by ElectricSnowStorm

[Terminal Moraine]

Hello. I'm a French weather forecaster and I need write weather reports in English.

Can you explain me the difference between "patchy rain", "occasional rain", "intermittent rain" and "outbreaks of rain"? Thank you very much!

'Patchy rain' is a term which has become popular with forecasters since the advent of the rainfall radar. It indicates areas of rainfall within a wider area covered in a general layer of cloud, but with dry areas between them, and was never used prior to about 1990.It's only really meaningful if you're looking at the radar picture as an observer on the ground would, over a period of time, experience intermittent rain.

Occasional rain and intermittent rain are different terms for the same thing, in the past forecasters only used the term 'intermittent rain'. I suppose if you stretched the point 'occasional rain' might be used where there were longer dry periods between the spells of rain and 'intermittent rain' where the dry spells were shorter but in practice there is no real distinction between the two.

'Outbreaks of rain' is really the same as 'patchy rain' in that it has arisen from looking at the rainfall radar and seeing patches of rain scattered over an area with dry areas between them and without the clearances associated with showers. 'Outbreaks of rain' also has the implication that it is the forerunner of continuous rain but then again this could also be the case with any of the terms above.

In summary, 'patchy rain and 'outbreaks of rain' indicate areas of rainfall within a wider area without the clearances associated with showers. The observer on the ground may or may not experience any falling rain according to the distribution of the 'patches'.

'Intermittent rain' and 'occasional rain' imply that all observers on the ground will experience rain at some point over a given period of time but that the rain will not be continuous, and there will be no clearances between the rain as there is with showers.

[nebulozor]

Thanks very much for your answers!

So I understand that patchy rain is a sort of "scattered rain", isn't it ?

I've seen some strange expressions in some weather forecasts of the Met Office, for example: "Outbreaks of showery rain" or "occasional Outbreaks of rain". I think they are pleonasms, aren't they?

Edited June 25, 2011 by nebulozor

[evil monkey]

...I've seen some strange expressions in some weather forecasts of the Met Office, for example: "Outbreaks of showery rain" or "occasional Outbreaks of rain". I think they are pleonasms, aren't they?

Possibly they are pleonastic, though it could be they are just expressions of the uncertainty often associated with this type of weather.

[nebulozor]

Hello.

Is there a difference between a sunny spell and a sunny interval or a sunny period ?

What's the difference between a sunny interval and a bright interval ?

Thanks for your help!

[johnholmes]

not sure if the same 'bible' is used as when I did Public Service forecasts.

In those days

sunny intervals were shorter than periods

spells was also used if there was some doubt as to the length of the sunshine, ie would it be intervals or periods

hope that may help?

bright is used when the sunshine is obscured by thin cloud or sometimes as a sort of half way house between sunshine and thinnish cloud?

Hello. I'm a French weather forecaster and I need write weather reports in English.

Can you explain me the difference between "patchy rain", "occasional rain", "intermittent rain" and "outbreaks of rain"? Thank you very much!

the terminology these days is much more lax than years ago so the fairly precise differences between one expression and another have become less clear.

patchy refers to rain in places

occasional to rain on and off

intermittent much the same but more often

outbreaks of rain tends to be used when its expected to more than slight at times

I THINK those comments from me are correct?

Edited July 2, 2011 by johnholmes

[nebulozor]

Thank you very much for these answers! I understand better now.