There’s just something about the smell of rain on a hot sidewalk. It’s sort of like the rain cleans the air — completely hammering all the dirt and grime particles down to the ground and releasing some hot, baked-in chemicals from the pavement. It smells best if it hasn’t rained in a while and the sidewalk is scalding hot — then it sort of sizzles and steams up into a big, hot, intoxicating whiff.
AWESOME!
Photo from: here
33 Comments
September 17, 2008 at 8:42 am
Should this not be #937?
(EDIT: Yup! Fixed, thank you. -Neil)
September 17, 2008 at 8:57 am
You’re ruining the natural order of things!!!
September 17, 2008 at 9:07 am
I’m currently teaching English in Japan, and here they hate that smell. I can’t believe it when someone here tells me that. There is nothing that says summer more than the smell of rain on the sidewalk and pavement. AWESOME!
Jerame Clough
-Next Gen Politics
September 17, 2008 at 11:05 am
I adore this smell more than I can say. When I start to smell it, even if I’m at work I immediately run to the nearest window to soak it in.
September 17, 2008 at 1:13 pm
This is my favorite smell in the whole world!
September 17, 2008 at 3:41 pm
You’ve just alienated the majority of my continent. What is this “warmth” you speak of?
September 17, 2008 at 4:17 pm
You can also fake this smell on a hot summer day by spraying your hose onto the hot street. Smells great!
September 23, 2008 at 11:48 am
*It’s all about the wet cement smell on the basketball court at a elementary school*
I have found that you can attempt to recreate this smell w/DEMETER (single note fragrance)- by doing one squirt Dirt and one squirt Rain. . . but that chemical soothing smolting smell is missing.
September 26, 2008 at 11:31 pm
I am obsessed with this smell every since I quit smoking. It is so much more powerful than before. Like Mike said, you can fake the smell by spaying the hose on the sidewalk. In New York, businesses do this every day and I find myself walking on the side of the street where they spray!
October 1, 2008 at 9:37 am
[...] by a talented writer. Every day, we are treated to a detailed story about something awesome. The smell of rain on a hot sidewalk. Wearing underwear just out of the dryer. The first scoop out of a jar of peanut butter. Wow. Those [...]
November 12, 2008 at 9:46 pm
ahhhh, the smell of a childhood summer day…
@ mike: i used to spray the sidewalk, too… just to smell the smell
now i live in the desert. it doesn’t rain too often, but when it does… on a hot 110 F summer afternoon… AWESOME!
(along with the additional smell of the creosote bush… that’s a whole other page of awesome!)
November 24, 2008 at 10:21 pm
there is actually a name for this – “petrichor”. I posted about it here:
http://ellebeeplus3.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/new-favorite-word/
LOVE your blog by the way :-)
March 21, 2009 at 7:16 pm
i prefer the smell of rain on asphalt. brings me back to my elementary school days
March 21, 2009 at 7:17 pm
its probably in my top 3 favorite smells in the whole wide world, if not number 1
April 15, 2009 at 8:43 am
This is very hot information. I think I’ll share it on Digg.
April 20, 2009 at 1:40 am
I agree that it’s intoxicating. I also think it is suffocating, because all oxygen seems to be soaken out of the air. The first 30 secs orso after this anamoly strikes, I allways have trouble breathing… I thus think this phenomena isn’t what is seems to be, but in fact, it’s an alien thing and they’re harvesting oxygen locally when it happens. They don’t do it to all of earth’s air at te same time, because they are too small in numbers yet. But they won’t be for long, as some of them trie to convince us that it’s even our on fold that it’s raining more and more since the last decades. One already even got a nobel-prize for this. So, be aware every time rain falls on hot pavement. Because now you know They are near…
April 26, 2009 at 11:32 pm
The phenomenon is so notable and so familiar, it should have its own name. Recently I walked about a mile, all the while that smell was strong in the air. I tried to analyze it. Is it dust? Is it some dried out bacteria activated by the rain? No matter what it is, it takes me back to childhood when I walked to school, occasionally in the rain.
April 26, 2009 at 11:38 pm
My bad. Apparently there is a word and it’s petracore. BTW, I voted for your blog on the webbies.
April 26, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Sorry Laurie. I didn’t read all the other entries first. Your spelling is the correct one.
May 14, 2009 at 3:51 pm
It’s not summer till I smell it!
July 29, 2009 at 4:46 am
If this list is in order of “most awesome” as #1, then this certainly deserves a place closer to the top.
Totally awesome.
September 1, 2009 at 4:40 am
I absolutely love this.
September 18, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Actually, there’s a name for this; Petrichor.
April 21, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Thanks – I never knew that!
December 31, 2009 at 5:16 am
Yeah, water and concrete is awesome.
April 20, 2010 at 6:36 pm
some people like the smell of gasoline, I prefer bacon, popcorn, freshly mowed grass, walking outside of a bakery just as the bread is coming out of the ovens…clean high thread count cotton sheets as they come out of the dryer…
April 21, 2010 at 5:22 pm
This is definately one of my favourite smells of all time. In the summer, even the street cleaner driving by can make the same smell, so there I am walking behind it as the water evaporates. My cousin liked the smell so much that sometimes he’d just dump a bucket of water on the sidewalk when there was no rain to be found.
April 26, 2010 at 1:00 am
The smell of rain PERIOD.
May 11, 2010 at 5:49 am
[...] that it’s 12:34 #523 When you learn a new word and then suddenly start seeing it everywhere #937 The smell of rain on a hot sidewalk #880 Getting piggy-backed anywhere #748 That feeling in your stomach when you go really high on [...]
July 3, 2010 at 1:27 pm
I am certainly with you on this, as I do love rain at any time of the year, even now in summer. I just find it really refreshing. Nature at its best.:D
August 2, 2010 at 11:29 am
In South Carolina Summer heat, this smells great after an afternoon rain while the steam rises *inhales* lovely…
August 2, 2010 at 9:18 pm
I live in a rural area where there are still clotheslines in the back yard. Sheets dried on the line, warmed by the sun…I wish they could bottle that scent. It’s the best cure for insomnia in the world!
August 3, 2010 at 1:13 pm
I love the smell….
It’s the smell of our mother land…..