You may have seen many of the Top 7 or “Top 10 reasons why you may be a pluviophile” articles describing who or what is a pluviophile and stating some of the reasons why you may be one. While people will identify with many of the reasons, as they are certainly aspects of being a pluviophile, the underlying message is usually that you only love rain, are probably an introvert and like no other type of weather.

These lists suggest that while most people enjoy sunshine, you as a pluviophile enjoy the opposite - cold, wet, rainy days.

In my view this couldn't be further from the truth and being a pluviophile doesn’t define your personality.

I for one love sunshine, the beach and beautiful warm weather.

However, I also love the rain.

One of my happiest memories is swimming in the ocean one summer when a thunderstorm rolled in and the sky opened up. There's nothing quite like swimming in the ocean under dark skies on a summer evening while it's raining. It was absolute heaven.

I believe pluviophiles worship the weather as much as they worship the rain. Loving the rain is the wonderment of mother nature at work.

So here's my very own list of what it means to be a pluviophile.

• It's getting excited when there's a forecast of a thunderstorm and staying up late with your loved ones to listen to the thunder and watch in amazement when the lightning lights up the sky.

• It's enjoying being outside rain, hail or shine and marvelling at nature regardless of the season.

• It's having the weather radar open on your phone more often than Facebook. It’s a personal weather station that’s also a phone, right?

• It's secretly hoping you'll have a few rainy nights when camping with friends or family just so you can lie in your sleeping bag and listen to the pitter-patter of rain on your tent.

• It's respect for the power of rain - how it can just as easily can create life as take it away.

Give me a warm sunny day over a cold one any day - though just make sure there's a few rumbles of thunder and a sun-shower to cool me down.

This is a recording I made in 3D binaural audio of a Thunderstorm that hit Melbourne, Australia in late May, 2020.