What’s in a name?

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… That which we call rain by any other name would be as wet.

According to popular belief, the Inuit have over a hundred or so words for snow. While that may or may not be true, as the rainy season takes hold of Vallarta, it becomes apparent that rain expressions and idioms are not limited to the British (and those living in Seattle). Indeed the Spanish language is also rich in rain vocabulary and has many creative alternatives to our favorite English language rain expressions.
You no longer need to limit yourselves to está lloviendo or llueve (it’s raining). Below is a short selection of the most common ways of describing the rain in Spanish (some of which are specific to Mexico). Impress your Mexican neighbors during the next downpour with the accuracy of your description.
 Spanish                                                        English
Está chispeando                                         Light spotting of rain
Está chipi-chipi                                          Light spotting of rain
Agua espanta tontos                                   Light spotting of rain
                                                                     (lit. rain that frightens fools)
Llovizna (está lloviznando)                       Drizzle (it’s drizzling)
Brizna (está briznando)                             Very light misty drizzle
Agua moja tontos                                       Drizzle that gets you really wet without
                                                                     realizing it (lit. rain that gets fools wet)
Aguacero                                                     Downpour
Dios lloró sobre la tierra                          Downpour (lit. God cried on the earth)
Chubasco                                                    Very heavy rain / cloudburst
Diluvio                                                        Heavy downpour / deluge
Está cayendo el cielo                                Heavy downpour (lit. the sky is falling
                                                                    / the heavens open)
Los cielos rasgaron                                  The heavens tear apart
Se exprimieron las nubes                        The clouds are squeezed / wrung
Lluvia torrencial                                       Torrential rain
Tormenta                                                   A storm
Llueve a cántaros                                     Raining buckets
Lluvia monsónica                                     Monsoon rains