Photo courtesy of Gabriela Tulian | Getty Images
What is a pickle shower? I asked this question to several people in my hometown of Coldwater this past week and received mostly the same response. No one knows what it is.
When asking others about the topic, it turns out that most people have experienced one, but never named it.
What is a pickle shower?
According to Urban Dictionary, a pickle shower is, “A brief 5-10 minute rain shower said to be good for a crop of pickles”. This definition is a loose idea of what a pickle shower is like, but it is not quite what it is really like.
Imagine you are outside on a hot summer day with the sun shining and a soft blue sky hangs above you for miles. There is no cloud in sight, and yet, it starts to rain. The droplets fall fast and hard, but the sun still shines. This phenomenon is a pickle shower. It is when the sky rains for no reason and without warning.
A deeper dive
Robert Klosterman, a recent graduate of Ball State University with a Bachelor of Science, said, “Meteorologically, I’m guessing it is simply a pop-up thunderstorm or rain shower due to intense day time heating and high moisture content”.
Klosterman went on to explain that this event is common in the summer, but that the name “pickle shower” must be a colloquial name for a more complex event.
Pickle showers, or pickle rain as some people refer to it, is something that is a unique experience that hopefully everyone has at least once in their lives.
“Oh, they’re so interesting,” said Ralph Roessner, owner of Roessner Energy Products. “I have no idea how they work or where the name came from, but everyone knows what you mean when you explain it”.
Not even Google knows what to look for when “pickle shower” is typed in the search bar. Pictures of baby shower invitations pop-up along with novelty gifts involving pickles.
However, the next time this small storm occurs, know that it is a pickle shower and that your cucumbers have been watered for the day.
