A term for "it's raining while the sun is shining"

Question

Most languages have a popular term or a traditional saying for the occurrence of rain while the sun is shining (a sunshower). Most of these expressions have been handed down from generation to generation and it may be difficult to trace their origin.

My question is about the most common term in your English speaking country, (mention where you're from) its origin and, in case it's not obvious, an explanation why people call it that.

EDIT - This other question,  mentioned as a possible duplicate in one of the comments, is about "rain without clouds" which is clearly different from "the simultaneous occurrence of rain and sunshine".

I'm not looking for lists. I'm looking for the most popular and traditional saying in the US, the UK, in Australia, etc. A saying most people will have heard at some time during their lifetime.

Dirigible · Accepted Answer

Here is an excerpt from the results of a 2003 dialect survey in the United States (Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder. 2003. The Harvard Dialect Survey. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department):

What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining? [n = 10,691 respondents]

sunshower (34.29%)
the wolf is giving birth (0.04%)
the devil is beating his wife (6.43%)
monkey's wedding (0.16%)
fox's wedding (0.15%)
pineapple rain (0.03%)
liquid sun (0.74%)
I have no term or expression for this (55.15%)
other (3.02%)

So, in the US, a majority of people have no term to describe this phenomenon.
Source, including maps showing the geographic distribution of these responses.

user121863 · Answer

Sunshower appears  to be a common term:

A sunshower or sun shower is a meteorological phenomenon in which rain falls while the sun is shining.
A sunshower is usually the result of accompanying winds associated
with a rain storm sometimes miles away, blowing the airborne raindrops
into an area where there are no clouds, therefore causing a sunshower.
The term used in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK.

(Wikipedia)

In South African English, a sunshower is referred to as a "monkey's wedding", a loan translation of the Zulu umshado wezinkawu, a wedding for monkeys.

(Wikipedia)

There’s a well-known version in the American South, at least among older people: “The devil’s behind his kitchen door beating his wife with a frying pan”, usually shortened just to “The devil’s beating his wife”.

(World Wide Words)

Strangely enough, a regional variant used in Tennessee appears to be that the Devil is kissing his wife (and why that would make her cry is anybody’s guess).

Historically Speaking)

Lesley · Answer

In Hawaii, when the sun shines through a shower of rain, it’s called ‘liquid sunshine’.  It’s a truly apt expression.

In my native Scotland, when rain falls from a clear blue sky, it’s called ‘lauchin’ rain’.  It literally means, laughing rain. Doesn't happen very often,though.

Gacaar · Answer

In Brazil, some people call it the widow's wedding (casamento da viúva), denoting that it's a strange phenomenon. Also heard the expression fox's wedding (casamento da raposa), which is explained by a little tale, popular in some regions of the country.

John Johnson · Answer

In my native, Nigeria, when I was a kid, I was told that whenever rain is falling and sun is shinning at the same time, that an elephant is giving birth somewhere.
I wonder how I believed this?
I can't wait to tell my own kids too ?

Aaron K · Answer

"Serein" is a term in English, Meteorology argot, for

"rain falling from a cloudless sky"

Glossary of the American Meteorological Society

Quarterly Journal of the American Meteorological Society, July 22 1889

Monthly Weather Review, 1917

Ems · Answer

Orphan’s tears is one I’ve always heard but that could be a regional thing from the Midwest, I don’t know.

A term for "it's raining while the sun is shining"

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