Oh, I LOVE this question. It is something I have always loved-the smell of rain coming, the feel of snow in the air...of course, I have no idea what the answer is. :) so everything is back to normal!

Off to mess around in the yard. There are some hostas and azaleas that have been overtaken by larger shrubs and my goal today is to move them. We'll see if the ground is soft enough for me to get the shovel in far enough to uproot them without damaging them. We had tons of rain last weekend, but we are again dry as a bone here. Why is that? I hope your rain moves south east, Nancy!

Cynthia

Mornin' everyone, we finally got some rain so I expect the temperatures are going to head back to around normal for this time of year. I have a couple of varieties of pole beans that haven't even flowered yet, hoping the the cooler temps will bring them on. My Chinese Red Noodles are just sitting there doing nothing, not really one that will produce here but you know me I'm a zone pusher always willing to try something at least once :).
I've almost got that overgrown bed dug out, still needs some work so that's where I'll be later this morning.

I think I know the answer to this one, so later my friends.

Annette

This post was edited by aftermidnight on Sat, Aug 16, 14 at 12:07

Also love the smell of rain and am hoping for some today but after the outdoor wedding we are attending is over. I pulled out the hoses and watered for the second time this summer. That should bring the rain.

Do not know if I am thinking in the right direction for the answer and will check back later tonight to see if there are clues that can either confirm or help me come up with the correct answer.

Tomatoes, pole beans and cucumbers are being harvested.
Somehow many of my tomato plants are different than they are labeled. The earliest planted are correct but others are mixed up. None are Reinsentrauben, a favorite grape tomato. Those were probably mislabeled as well and given to friends.

When I visited Arizona, many years ago, they took us out into the Sonoran Desert. It is an amazingly diverse area of plant life, which I found surprising. One of the prevalent species is creosote bush, or chaparral which is locally called ozone bush, because the leaves have the 'just as it rains' smell. Lovely. The Sonoran Desert get 3" to 16" of rain each year, so I guess they know something about the smell, but it doesn't come from the bush exclusively.

Nancy.

Bobbie, we are just getting tomatoes in the last week or so. There is no room to start our own, so I bought a couple of Branywines and some Sweet 100 cherries. I have the cherries in some upside-down hangers, and the Brandywines are approaching 6'. The tomatoes they are producing are huge and the perfect combination of sweet and soft flesh. So yummy, and they go well in sandwiches or just sliced and salted!! My pole beans have completely taken over the ladder trellis they are on - getting ahead of me with the picking now. I need to start giving some away!!

I love the way everything smells when it rains, refreshed, you know? Of course the downside is I have to dry the laundry in the dryer. Oh well.

Nancy.

Rain here this morning too. Plus a funeral for a long-time friend, at which the sadness was tempered by the funny stories told afterward. I hope when I go, people can think of funny stories to tell about me.

The smell of rain: My first thought was that it may be ozone. Lightning makes ozone and it makes sense that winds could carry it ahead of the storm as kind of an olfactory notice that rain is on the way. Two things bother me about this. One, that's the smell of lightning, not rain, so what about all the rains we get without a thunderstorm? I imagine people smell that rain too. Second, the smell of ozone is a sharp unpleasant smell, though maybe when it's diluted by a lot of air, it seems like a nice aroma to us.

I've read something about the smell of rain recently, but I'll be darned if I can come up with what it was. I think the cause was a particular chemical compound, but not one that any of us would be likely to know. I really want to look it up now, but that would be what? Cheating!

Will await further news and clues.

TM

TM, I am sorry to hear you have lost a friend. It is not an easy thing to lose someone you have been friends with for so long, but those funny stories do temper the sadness a bit.

My first thought was ozone as well. Now, I am feeling quite smart since that was TM's idea, too!

Heading back out into the yard. Have not moved anything because the ground is hard as concrete. Have been weeding though. Weeding seems to be my destiny- my all consuming pastime. Also watering here Bobbie. :(

Cynthia

Verty good Tm - you caught the anti-clue.

Research by others identified the scent of ozone gas, formed by lightning that zaps air molecules. Ozone has a sharp, slightly bitter smell. But that comes only during and after a thunderstorm.
Richard Grenfell Thomas and Joy Bear quickly dropped the traditional idea that the main source is bacterial and fungal spores thrown into the air when rain hits the ground. They still got the smell after killing off spores in soil with fungicides and radiation. Thomas gave the smell a fanciful name: petrichor. (The âÂÂpetrâ part is Greek for stone; âÂÂichorâ was the mythical fluid in the veins of Greek gods.)
Cynthia put her finger on part of it, that rain and snow put out different atmospheric signals.
Hmmm....

Nancy.

I was thinking of ozone as well. Edited to add: My thought is that the unstable air pushes some of the ozone from higher levels down so it doesn't need to lightning to have ozone in the air.

TM, sorry you had to say goodbye today to a long time friend. Memories of
shared experiences ease the loss and funny stories bring a smile and joy to the heart. One of my special memories of my cousin is after a funeral where we sat together for hours sharing stories of another relative and our childhoods. No funny stores to tell about me, ohhh, noooo.

Nancy, I have grown Brandywines but didn't get many tomatoes and they were so late. Occasionally pick up a Brandywine at the farmers market. Now I grow Stump of the World which are also large and delicious and produce earlier for me. Also grow Kellogg's Breakfast which are huge yellows but very mild flavor. For cherries am growing Sungold and Sunsugar to compare. Very much alike and extremely productive. Supposedly I have thirteen varieties though a couple appear to be missing. One has no tomatoes on it but was planted late and not in the best location so my own fault.

We didn't go to the wedding as DH was not feeling well this afternoon. I ran errands and came home exhausted from the heat. It is hot, hot, hot! I'm not getting that rain is coming smell so think it is staying south today.

This post was edited by mnwsgal on Sat, Aug 16, 14 at 20:44

Bobbie - I am sorry you missed the wedding today. They are such pleasant events. I was thinking too about TM's friend's passing, and the funeral. It is a good way to celebrate life, and the shared experiences we have had together. I remember my Mum's funeral, as if in a dream, but I remember my cousin wondering if our generation would be remembered the same way. My parents lived in the same community, attended the same church for their whole lives. it won't be the same when I pass.
But on to happier things. We are plotting out the plants, and where the tropicals will go when they come indoors. I need to make sure there is room for a real Christmas tree this year. I love the scent of a Canada Balsam.

Nancy.

Oh, petrichor is the name I couldn't remember from the article I read about the smell of rain. Apparently, they have discovered the source, and maybe the chemical identity of it, but I still can't remember what those are. Your mention of Christmas trees, Nancy, makes me think that you are pointing us toward trees.

TM

Well, as part of trees, TM - perhaps their essence!!

Nancy.

Perhaps the smell is a combination of ozone and oils (from trees etc.) and bacteria that are in the more humid air.

HereâÂÂs BearâÂÂs explanation to the Aussie newspaper The Age, in an interview in 1978.

âÂÂThe odour comes from oils and other materials given off by plants and animals during dry periods.

âÂÂWhen it is dry, the soil loses its moisture content and absorbs these compounds.

âÂÂThen, as rain approaches, the humidity of the air rises. The pores of the soil fill up with water and the compounds are displaced from the soil.âÂÂ

Bear and Thomas figured out the connection by experiments in which they alternately baked soils to simulate the intense Australian heat and then raised the humidity, releasing organic compounds from the soil.

They published their work in the journal Nature. The 1964 article is called âÂÂNature of argillaceous odour;â argillaceous means related to clay, and the duo found that this phenomenon happens mainly in soils with a lot of clay.
In a later article they found that the oil prevents seeds from germinating. They hypothesized itâÂÂs a mechanism used by plants to delay the germination of their seeds at times of drought, when seedlings arenâÂÂt likely to survive. They published that in Nature, too.

This is another in the series, the Science of Summer that our local paper has run over the summer. Kind of sun, but hard to find as they put it in different places and run it on different days.

So, for Bobbie:
{{gwi:598938}}

For TM, you were almost there:
{{gwi:599307}}

Thanks for playing - see you all next week!!

Nancy.

Thanks for the stars. Was uncertain if I was interpreting the clues correctly. It pays to guess anyway.

Oh fun! I will use this with my students when we do a weather unit! Thanks for another terrific question!

Cynthia

Yep, two stars is about what I have coming. That's a really interesting chain of events that lead to the petrichor aroma. I wonder how long I'll remember it. :-)

Thanks, Nancy. Fun stuff.

TM