After Rain

The rain has stopped. Time to get out for a stroll. Strolling along and then one realises there is a difference to the way the air smells.

I can remember saying this to someone many years ago and they looked at me as if I had ten heads! However, it seems that I wasn’t off in dreamworld. There is a name for how the air smells after rain.

“Petrichor a distinctive, earthy, usually pleasant odour that is associated with rainfall especially when following a warm, dry period and that arises from a combination of volatile plant oils and geosmin released from the soil into the air and by ozone carried by downdrafts”.

I think though that there are different smells after rain depending on the time of year. There is a great intensity to the smell in the Autumn. It is as if the plants are sending out their last perfumes and the air after autumnal rain seems richer. The springtime rain leaves a lightness. It seems to inspire that lighter days are to come. Winter rain is cold and really wet and even when it stops the air remains wet for such a long time.

Now that the night’s deluge has stopped it is time to feel that after rain air. Petrichor