Weather feelings
Weather lovers and weather haters
Some people love rain. Some people take a cloudy Saturday personally. Here are the words for the people who love the weather, the case for the people who hate it, and what I think of all of you.
The lovers
- Pluviophile
A pluviophile is someone who loves rain: the sound on the roof, the grey light, the smell after a dry spell, the excuse to cancel everything. Most people check the forecast hoping for sun. A pluviophile checks it hoping for the opposite.
Pluviophile: someone who looks at a grey sky and sees a personality.
- Chionophile
A chionophile is someone who loves snow and proper winters: the first flakes, a quiet snowy street, a reason to own four coats. In biology the word means animals and plants that thrive in cold, snowy winters, like the snowy owl, the Arctic fox and the snow leopard.
Chionophiles share a word with polar bears and act like it.
- Heliophile
A heliophile is someone who loves the sun: clear skies, long evenings, the first warm afternoon of spring. Merriam-Webster’s definition is “one attracted or adapted to sunlight”, and biologists use it for sun-loving algae.
Heliophile: someone who takes every passing cloud personally.
The haters
- I hate rain
Hating rain is one of the most normal opinions there is: wet socks, flat hair, umbrellas that turn inside out, a plan that was fine an hour ago. Here is the case against it, where rain is rarest in the US, and a few lines for the next grey day.
I hate rain. Rain does not care, which is the worst part.
- I hate winter
Plenty of people hate winter: dark by five, cold cars, ice on the windscreen, coats with too many zips. Here is the case against it, how far the US goes in both directions, and a few lines for the long months.
Winter is just autumn that stopped making an effort.