The Blessing of Rain

It’s a rainy day here in Malta. And it is the answer to my prayers. Since September I’ve been praying for rain. And my congregation actually laughs when they hear me pray “For adequate rain, especially in our fields and countryside, and please Lord, send it down on us softly, and preferably at night, we pray to the Lord....” I love the rain – there is nothing more soothing than hearing drip-drops on an umbrella when you’re walking in it. People panic here when they hear it fall. I’ve been through blizzards, driving through 6 inches of snow, hurricanes, pounding rain and icy conditions – so nothing is more pleasant to me than seeing rainfall on the Maltese Islands.  We don't have any mountains or rivers, but most houses have a well underneath their house, and the rainwater that falls on flat roofs, usually percolate into the well or cistern, which people then use for watering plants, washing,  and other uses. Here are some interesting facts about the rain.

- Rain can fall at the speed of 22 miles per hour.

- The people in Uganda experience a rainstorm and thunderstorms 250 times a year.

- The biggest amount of rain that fell in one day was 71.9 inches at La Reunion in France, during the tropical cyclone ‘Denise’ on January 8, 1966.

- The place in the world where it rains the most in Cherrapunji in India, where during the year they get an average of 1041.7 inches, or 26,460 millimeters.

- Cumulonimbus clouds and nimbostratus clouds are guaranteed to produce rain within  24 hours.

- Umbrellas were first invented to protect people from the sun. The word itself comes from the Latin ‘umbra’ meaning shadow, The first umbrellas appeared in China around the 11^th century BC.

- In the movie ‘Singing in the Rain,’ water was mixed with milk during the splashing in the rain scene with Gene Kelly, this way the water will be more visible.

- Every second, 16 million tons of water is evaporated from the surface of the earth. And every second, 16 million tons of rain falls on the earth.

- The game of Darts was invented because of rain. Once, during an archery competition, the competitors were caught in a rainstorm. While waiting at a pub, they started throwing smaller arrows towards a target on the wall. Hence the invention of darts.