Wacky Weather Words

Posted: October 6, 2023 at 10:18 am

Tired of your typical weather terms, like “scattered showers” or “hot and humid”? Try working one of these into your next weather conversation…

-Frog strangler: This goes back to the 1870s, and refers to a heavy downpour…apparently capable of drowning frogs. Also acceptable: ‘frog choker’, ‘frog drowner’, or substitute the word ‘toad’ for extra oomph.

-Gorilla hail: Coined by Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer during a Texas storm in 2020. It means just what you think it means – huge hail.

-Monkey’s wedding: Also known as a sunshower. Legends vary, but rats, bears, jackals and tigers have also been accused of arranging nuptials in this type of conditions.

–Turkey Towers: Storm chaser slang for clouds that rapidly build upwards, exhibiting a turkey-like “neck.”

-Microburst: When a surge of rain falls out of a thunderstorm and hits the ground, and pushes outward into a foot shape.

-Sting jet: A small area of intense winds that can cause extensive damage. The formation looks like a bee’s stinger or scorpion’s tail on weather maps.

-Bear’s cage: The area of a tornado where the view is literally blocked by rotating walls of rain or hail.

-Suck zone: The point basically when a twister literally sucks you up. (That’s not the technical term for it, obviously…)