The Smell of Rain

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“It’s the closest thing we poor creatures have to magic, my dear – the ability to be transported through time by a waft of scent that unlocks a memory.” – Jason Fry

On a recent warm Spring Friday night, my kids and I walked up to a local burger joint. It’s six city blocks away and the walk held its own sense of nourishment as we looked at flowers, stopped to talk with neighbors, and chatted about some of our favorite memories that this route holds. Like the time when Miss O was three-years-old and got a Wonder Woman shaped balloon made for her by a balloon animal vendor at the farmer’s market. Then as we walked home, she rubbed it along a picket fence, popped one of Wonder Woman’s legs, and burst into tears for the rest of the way home.

The weather was in the high-60’s and we scored an outside table under the awning at the local burger place. As we sat there waiting for our food and watching the other people in line, ten-year-old Miss O noticed big splotches of rain dotting the pavement. She said, “I think it’s raining.” A surprise because it wasn’t in the forecast.

And then I was hit with the smell of rain, noticeable even amidst the odor of the bacon and burgers emanating from the restaurant. I replied, “Oh yes, I can smell it.”

Miss O questioned, “Rain doesn’t have a smell. What does it smell like?”

Her query launch a flood (pun intended) of sense memories. The sound of the wooden typhoon boards being slotted into place when we lived in the Philippines when I was a child. The electricity in the air when the weather shifts on a mountain. And from Eastern Washington where I went to high school, the smell of a crop field absorbing the first drops of rain.

As I contemplated the words to describe what rain smells like, she exclaimed, “I smell it!” And I smiled knowing that she was starting her own memory file named The Smell of Rain. The first entry is a warm Spring Friday night in the neighborhood she grew up in.

(featured photo is from Pexels)

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60 thoughts on “The Smell of Rain”

  1. Beautifully written. The way scent ties moments to memory is truly remarkable, and you captured it so vividly here. “The smell of rain” becoming part of your daughter’s memory file is such a tender and meaningful image. 🌧️

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  7. This gave me goosebumps, Wynne. Yes, rain really does have a distinct smell, and so many incredible memories tied to it… and you’ve awoken mine this morning. 😊

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  10. I love the way families have their own ‘do you remember when’ stories that remain as an important part of family folklore. I talk to my brothers about our parents and childhood… Our children remind us of stuff that happened forty years ago… and we listen to grandchildren recalling their own family memories. It’s a truly precious part of family life.

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  12. Such an earthy, heavenly scent. The first time I visited Tara in Nevada, a sudden shower popped up over the desert, and she rolled down the window to breathe in the scent of rain-soaked sagebrush. There’s nothing like it in the world.

    (Thank you for unlocking my own Smell of Rain memory file!)

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  15. For me, rain, especially summer rain, has a distinct smell of rest, recharge and renovation. It also smells of afternoon naps, a movie under a comforter with a bowl of popcorn, and slowing down. It’ll be interesting to see the memories Miss O starts to associate with the scent of rain.

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  18. The smell of rain evokes such pleasant feelings. Yesterday, was our grandson’s birthday. It was a great day, but after the party, there was a huge rainstorm that included high winds and hail. It wasn’t exactly rain smelling weather as the sirens were going off for tornadoes in the area, which thankfully didn’t happen.

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  19. Nice! I love how Miss O was able to put a name to something, and how you’re seeing it as the beginning of a lovely memory file.

    I love all the different smells of rain, well except for some smells which are smellier when the rain hits. When I first moved to Tucson it was raining and folks were taking in deep breaths and exclaiming how they love how the desert smells in the rain. My daughter and I had looked at each other and has wrinkled our noses. Yuck, it smelled like manure to us! A year or so later, we too were inhaling deeply when it rained, the smell having grown on us. Now it is a cherished memory.

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  21. That’s the best kind of memory, YK the ones that arrive on their own terms. Also the Wonder Woman balloon story living in the same walk I love that those streets hold all of that. Beautiful post ❤️

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  23. The word for the aroma after rain hits dry ground is petrichor. I discovered that word when I wrote a blog post about the scent here when it rains. It’s the creosote bushes that make such a strong fragrance. Memories are so tied to scents. One of mine was our cabin on the Stillaguamish River. I brought home some cloth bags from our cabin before we tore it down and kept them in my hallway closet in Palm Springs. They carried the scents of memories from my childhood staying in our cabin.

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