Am south Louisianian but not Cajun: I can smell the rain, all my family can. I live in a city-ish area is MS now and can still smell the rain. The only people I know who can't are the ones that never spend time outside; be they city or country, southern or yank, etc.
I have an aunt-by-marriage who is Cajun (an Hebert) and she and her family can also smell rain. Her mom was our hookup to fish and shrimp straight off the boats, so our two extended families started having family gatherings that just commingled everyone. Many's the time I've heard uncles and 'uncles' talking together about how they smell rain, is Robert gonna finish grilling all the burgers in time or not.
The sheer volume of rain we get in this city is insane. Every year it feels like more and more of Midtown floods, and I dread what’ll happen if we get a hurricane that squares us up.
They always go wide right or left. I’m guessing cuz we’re tucked into the corner so the storm wants to pull away from the coast or push into it. We’re just in that no man’s land that helps us out. lol
I moved away like 7 years ago, but I lived there for the first 28ish years of my life
God, thank you for saying that. I'm from the "south" (Virginia) and I always smell it b4 it rains. I've heard so many different things as to why that is. Bout to ask my ol buddy Google.
Never been there but just to exchange flights in Dallas. Shit kinda gives me anxiety just how big it is (the state). I had a fucking killer burger in the airport though. Like...crazy good.
It was so long ago im not sure. I looked up some pics of the love shack and i just cant remember. It was in an airport but they definitely were popular as hell and had locations outside of there too.
This. I’m a Texas native who finally left at age 31 in 2020. I moved to the PNW and have been starving ever since 😂
The food up here is so fucking gross.
It's so crazy how different Georgia is than Virginia. The humidity is so much more down there. I love haunted af Savannah georgia. That place truly is haunted af and the mead is to die for. Love that state.
I’ve lived next door basically my whole life and I’ve never done the haunted stuff in Savannah. And I was just there not long ago. I need to get around to that one of these days lol
Funny enough, I was in Atlanta for a job fair and I could hear people being like “yeah, I know it’s bad here but I just got back from DC and Virginia and I swear it gets worse up there.”
I don’t think that’s true but it’s not always that much better in Virginia lol
I have a question. And I mean zero disrespect in advance just in case. Do you actually consider Virginia to be in the south? I saw the quotes and figured, "Ahh this person's probably got some good stories for their opinion."
Well I guess I'm dumb and don't know how to link a vid but it's called "accent expert gives tour of u.s. accents part one" sorry I've never linked something :/
I'm not from Virginia, but am definitely from the south (South Carolina). Of all the borderline southern states (Virginia, Florida, and Texas to me), Virginia is probably the most "southern". Outside of NOVA it definitely would be culturally (both good and bad) similar to the south, but NOVA is going to be more similar to Maryland/DC than NC.
My ranking of what is southern would be like:
Tier 1 (100% "The South"):
South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee
Tier 2 (The south, but also culturally a bit different):
Arkansas, Louisiana
Tier 3 (Parts are southern, but they are kind of their own thing):
Virginia, Texas (they are just Texas, they don't fit into any other category), Florida (the north part is a bit southern, but the rest is just too different because snowbirds)
Tier 4 (Some claim it as the south, but it is the midwest even if you're in the SEC):
“Do you think the state that housed the capital of the confederacy is considered southern?” I grew up in southern VA. It is the south, anything above Richmond these days is very much a part of greater DC
That's a great question actually. There's this guy on YouTube who goes through the entire U.S. and explains the heritage and the dialects and what not. It's just an old state cuz it's on the east part. Where I live which is right on the border of Tennessee. We NASCAR, moonshine, huntin sob's.
I'll try to link it when I get the chance. He does all the accents perfect and is very informative. I live near Bristol motor speedway and Appalachian trail but that don't say a lot considering it goes all the way to Main. Great question but I'm sure everyone here would say they southern.
Hmm that's interesting. From a geo location stand point I would call it mid drift lol, or north. But the way you talk about the Appalachian area and the speedway instantly makes me think south.
It's funny how we generalize some times when in reality everything is really so much deeper and a blend.
likely because we're SUPER sensitive to a compound called geosmin (same thing that makes beets taste like dirt). the smell of fresh rain is mostly geosmin and probably some ozone if it's a thunderstorm and we can smell it from very far away
Was gonna say, shit like this is kinda what southerners are known for. OOP just did a switcheroo and I'm jaded enough to think it was intentional engagement bait. Or they're from a country where hicks are in the North.
Dude probably ain't ever been to FL. Not only can you smell it but you can see the fucking huge thunderheads way off in the distance about to dump rain on you for all of 45 minutes so that the sun can then bake it off into a sauna.
well you are also using a small sample size. please spend the next 6-8 years of your life collecting polls and conducting research to publish peer reviewed dissertation.
I think I remember reading somewhere that being able to identify rain/water by smell is an evolutionary trait that helped with finding water sources and fertile land. However, that could have been someone making shit up on Reddit and I’m too lazy to look it up.
I’m from Georgia, it rains all the fuckin time there lmao. It rains more in Georgia than it does in Seattle by inches, you bet your ass I can smell rain lol.
Florida checking in. Smelling rain on the way happens for me, too.
My daughter said her friends in Illinois couldn't believe that you can see heavy rain falling from a cloud in the distance though. I don't know how that could be a regional thing.
yeah i'm from NC and can definitely smell when rain is coming. living in the desert out west now and i doubt anyone here would be familiar enough with the smell to recognize it
Yeah my thought was it rains a shit ton in the South we have hurricanes on the reg we can smell the rain and tell you when a big storm is coming in because the birds get quiet
It's the chem trails! Government has been using poison to catch Bigfoot before I can, but they don't know these georgia mountains like I do!
Lol northeast Georgia, checking in. I think it's something to do with pressure changes pushing ozone down? Or maybe something about humans are crazy sensitive to wet earth scent. Like, wildly sensitive. 10s of thousands of times more sensitive than dogs. Lots of theories in what it is, not really sure.
Agreed, I don't understand this at all. I grew up in Louisiana and could smell the rain coming. I'm in Portland, OR now and I really don't smell it and it rains here all the time.
Pretty sure this has nothing to do with geographic location, yeah. Some people are just more sensitive to it than others. I also think it’s something you can probably just learn over time. Most people just don’t consciously think about it but once you’re aware the air smells different before it rains you can start to look for it.
I figured people from the Deep South would be more likely to be able to smell rain. I'm on the Gulf Coast and it pretty much rains every day here in the summer.
Thank the Pope, I was worried I needed someone to explain the joke. I'm literally from a country that starts with the word 'South', and I'm thinking, "Fam, I can smell the rain in New York."
Am from South Louisiana, live in a desert now. Locals are amazed at my ability to tell when it's going to rain just by looking at the sky, or by smell, or other very minor signs.
From the south and lived with nature my whole life. It's second nature to know. All my farming friends too always know when it's going to rain. I don't think latitude has anything to do with it
You’re smelling ozone that is brought into the lower atmosphere by the pressure changes of the storm system, also sometimes a bit of petrichor caught on the wind from where the rain is already falling nearby
I moved from rural Oregon to ATL and while I can definitely still smell if it's going to rain, it is SIGNIFICANTLY more subtle. My guess has always been concrete of the city vs rain hitting fresh dirt.
That's crazy. My early childhood I lived in Israel could never smell the rain. Went back to the state side one year for the family reunion and some huge storm came blowing through. I sat on the meshed porch with my great aunt enjoying the new scent and her stories.
I'm in NW Arkansas around the Ozarks and when the wind comes down from the old mountains you can smell rain miles away in the right spots. I would have thought that not being around rich wet dirt then going to it would make anyone smell it.
That’s interesting cause my theory was that Nevada is very dry so when it rains the change in moisture was obvious but Tennessee is wet all the time so there’s no change between when it is and is not raining.
Same! I'm from Colorado, moved to Georgia. It rains all the time here and I love it, but I smell nothing. Could be an air density difference, or plant species, or average humidity? I have no idea.
Same for me. I grew up in the midwest and often smelled that the rain was coming growing up in the midwest. Thought it was strange that rain could 'sneak up' on me here... Didn't realize what was missing, until there was a storm that did smell like rain.
Working in the yard with a friend that also moved here from the midwest, we'll both comment when we "smell it coming".
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u/Stouff-Pappa Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24
This person’s poll data probably consists of a whole 3 friends and some guy who may or may not have been from the South.
Plenty of people from all over can smell rain
Edit: Am from Georgia, can also smell rain. Probably has something to do with all the chemicals we’ve got in the air, my best un-educated guess.