Talk about getting caught int the rain

Biggest raindrops ever recorded found

University of Washington researchers have discovered the
largest raindrops ever recorded -- about one-fourth the
diameter of a golf ball in size. The researchers, flying
through cloud formations, measured raindrops as wide as 1
centimeter -- or four-tenths of an inch -- in cumulus congestus
clouds caused by burning Amazon rainforest in Brazil in 1995,
and in cumulus clouds in clean air over the Marshall Islands
in the Pacific Ocean in 1999. As raindrops fall toward Earth,
they are not tear-drop shaped but more shaped like parachutes
of thin films of water with water-heavy rims, said researcher
Peter Hobbs, whose team confirmed the findings. Large drops
break up into smaller ones when air forces through the thin
film, or when drops collide with one another, which usually
is what happens in clouds. In laboratory conditions, breakup
usually happens when drops reach about one-fifth of an inch
in diameter, researchers said. They said the drops above the
Amazon could have formed around ash particles and those above
the Marshall Islands might have formed around sea-salt
particles.