The Lemon Fool

Apparently Londoners refer to heavy rain as ‘caning it’ according to the Met Office, who are considering using local slang expressions in their regional weather forecasting.

...in the Black Country reported that they use "bucketing" to describe heavy rain, but in Leeds and Newcastle, most would use "chucking it down".
Those in Birmingham and Bristol use "tipping it down" and Londoners say "caning it".

I was born in London and lived near it for many years but I can’t recall the word ‘caning’ with respect to heavy rain. Driving hard or heavy drinking possibly, but rarely if ever re-rain. Perhaps it is a north or West London thing?

I have frequently heard hammering down; bucketing down; tipping it down and indeed chucking it down but apparently those expressions are favoured by other parts of the country.

They don’t even mention stair-rodding.

This, in an effort to make forecasts more accessible.

PS Going back to the story to get a url link and the bally thing has gorn.

Annoyed now.

Humpf. Like in some places they might not understand ‘heavy rain’.

And there was me looking forward to a thread about corporal punishment. Oh, well.

To get back on track, I've most frequently encountered the term 'caning it' in relation to driving a car fast and hard.

I've lived in outer London and the Home Counties for most of my life and don't recall the expression ever being used in the context of rain. And if I have, it wasn't recently.

Watis

I'd call really heavy rain 'stotting'.

Glad it’s not just me that hasn’t come across ‘caning’ WRT heavy downpours.

Not heard ‘stotting'.

This was the chappie:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42901959

Never heard of caning, in this context at least.

One of the more obvious phrases doesn't appear to have been mentioned and ends in "it down".

I haven't tested the profanity filter.

One of the more obvious phrases doesn't appear to have been mentioned and ends in "it down".

Hissing, probably.

While it would be mildly amusing at first to hear this from the Met Office, I could see it spurring an arms race with other news outlets. The slippery slope argument.

As such perhaps anybody complaining that ‘heavy rain’ is not ‘accessible’ enough should be told to bog off and find some other source of weather information.

Bucketing down, cats and dogs, tipping it down...
W Mids bloke I am

So, the Eskimos may have 3 million words for different kinds of snow, but we have at least as many for just one kind of rain.

It would be interesting to know if there were also local variants for middling, light steady rain, drizzle, mizzle and “spits and spots” (which I have heard in TV forecasts).

I’d still like to know how they arrived at “caning” as being common in London however.

Maybe someone “avin’ a larf” as we say hereabouts?

Perhaps it's a variant of stair rods, coming down like...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18461189

madhatter wrote:I’d still like to know how they arrived at “caning” as being common in London however.

Maybe someone “avin’ a larf” as we say hereabouts?

The comments I've found in London snoozepapers all say they've never heard of caning for raining.

Is it time for a Timekepers GmbH?

Mein Luftkissenfahrzeug ist voller Aale!

Τὸ ἐμὸν αερόστρωμνον ἐγχελείων πλῆρές ἐστιν

Μία γλώττα οὐδεπώποτε ἱκανή

Indeed!

AleisterCrowley wrote:Perhaps it's a variant of stair rods, coming down like...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18461189

I've taken to using any old word to mean raining, similar to the Michael McIntyre skit relating to being drunk. ("I was totally gazebo'ed" etc.)

It's ******ing it down (insert pretty much any word instead of the asterisks) works for me, and people seem to understand.

Examples

It's Elephanting it down
It's Trellising it down
It's Jack Dee'ing it down.

Three chosen entirely at random... with the last one being rhyming slang once or twice removed.

MrCPFG

I once lived in a village near Bath called Peasedown. I then moved to another place called Ammerdown, which sounded almost as bad. But the nomenclature proved to offer no protection during the great storm of 1987, in which Ammerdown got flattened while Peasedown simply got a bit wet.

Worcestershire rejoices in a locality called Wyre Piddle, where urinating during thunderstorms is not recommended.

BJ

Is anyone else a tiny bit disappointed that this thread has nothing whatsoever to do with BDSM?

Bink333 wrote:Is anyone else a tiny bit disappointed that this thread has nothing whatsoever to do with BDSM?

OK, let's fix that. Bleedin' Desperate Spring Monsoon. Happy now?

BJ

Bink333 wrote:Is anyone else a tiny bit disappointed that this thread has nothing whatsoever to do with BDSM?

Why did I just google that?

MrCPFG