April showers bring May flowers — so just let them fall and soak ‘em in.

Disappearing rain: What are virga? Rain that falls from the sky and never touches the ground or the treetops. Under particular conditions, precipitation descends from a cloud and evaporates, or sublimates, during its downward journey, turning those raindrops into an invisible gas. 

Smelly rain: Why does rain smell so good — and why does it even smell it all? That’s a scent known as petrichor, and ricoheting raindrops are responsible. When drops fall onto dry or dusty land, little air bubbles get trapped inside which shoot upward and pop out of the drop, and those are carried away by the wind, carrying that unique odor away. 

Shapely rain: Rain isn’t really teardrop shaped, as it’s often commonly depicted. When it’s still up there in the atmosphere, precipitation molecules take on a spherical shape, bound together by surface tension. As those round drops fall, their shape rapidly shifts and they get flattered somewhat by air resistance, making them actually jelly bean shaped. 

Fast rain: Depending on the height of its origin point and the size of the drop, rain falls at a rate between 14 to 20 miles per hour. 

Abundant rain: The rainiest place on Earth, on average, is the small Indian town of Mawsynram. Adjacent to noth the Bay of Bengal and the Garo Hills, it receives a lot of moisture from the sea (and monsoons) and feels the effects of air masses that come off the mountains. In an average year, Mawsynram accumulates 467.4 inches of rain. 

Accumulating rain: Every minute, about one billion tons of rain, thanks largely to about 2,000 thunderstorms, hits the Earth’s surface. 

Old rain: Fossil evidence of rain — indentations caused by heavy drops falling — dates back to 2.7 billion years ago, so it’s been raining at least since then. 

Lacking rain: Antarctica gets just a few inches of rain a year, so it’s the driest region on Earth, and technically a desert even though it’s so cold. The most profoundly rain-free individual spot on Earth is the Atacama Desert, which straddles northern Chile and southern Peru. It gets 0.019 inches of rain each year.

Rainiest rainy day: On January 7 and 8, 1966, Tropical Cyclone Denise brought down a torrential rainstorm of epic proportions at Foc-Foc on Reunion Island. The area received nearly 72 inches of rain in just 24 hours. 

Light rain: A raindrop weighs 0.034 grams. One of your eyelashes weighs more than that.