> New England isn't really like that, either with snow or rain. I think the frequency and duration of precipitation depends more on the area you're in than the precipitation type. I went to Florida for a week in October a few years ago, and it rained every day for like 15 minutes. Each and every time, Leen and I were figuring, "Oh no, figured it would rain on our vacation," and braced ourselves for an entire rainy day. Then it cleared up. Once it poured so hard there seemed to be more water in the air than actual air; we were stranded underneath a teeny overhang in EPCOT and got so wet anyway that we figured, hey, why not just stick it with the failed keeping-dry thing and go out in it? So we waded out into the open and became even more drenched than we were. A half hour later, *that* was gone, the skies were blue, and people were out and about again.
>

That's exactly what happened to me when I visited Florida eight years ago. The Heavens opened and my brother and I got completely soaked while traipsing around one of the Disneyworld parks. We tried to avoid it by dodging into a ride, but we managed to go into the Swiss Family Robinson Adventure, a renowned open air attraction. After that we went into one of those twenty minute long mini-theatre puppet shows. It was airconditioned so we proceeded to freeze as the cold air chilled our clothes. When we got out of that, we found it had stopped raining five minutes after we got in and it was now scorchingly hot again. We dried out inside half an hour. Even a two foot deep puddle completely disappeared within four hours.

Also, when we drove down to the Keys, we went through several bands of rain. One minute cruising along, windows and sunroof open, shades on, enjoying the sun. The next, everything closed, wipers at maximum and 20 mph slower to stay on the road in the torrential downpour we found ourselves in.

We must have gone through about four or five like that, each of which only lasted about 5 minutes.

Bea"Whereas, in England, it just drizzles most of the time"sty