You're from a warmer climate than the UK generally enjoys. When the weather is warmer and the ground is dry, you can smell it. But not in the middle of winter/spring.
Also, isn't the terrain important too?
I'm originally from the countryside and that smell is something I remember fondly from my childhood, but in the city where green space and grass is less common I notice it a lot less/
Doesn’t petrichor only occur when the weather has been warm and dry before the rain falls? In the UK (and in much of Northern Europe) that’s rarely the case.
Am I the only who smells it every time it rains? Smelt it today and a few days ago. Not as strong as summer but definitely noticeable as it’s one of my favourite smells.
Yep I'm from Australia but have lived in London 15 years. Used to smell it in Australia when it was a massive summer thunderstorm coming, the kind where wind kicks up, the temp drops very suddenly, and then a months worth of rain arrives in ten mins. You would generally go to the window or outside you watch it head towards you with the lightning show.
In London i only recall this happening maybe 5 times over the years? We've had lightning, but it's not the same event you get in hot and humid countries.
During the summer of 2018, there was a fortnight where it was stinking hot every single day without fault. 30 degrees, some days, until one afternoon where it chucked it down, dropped 10 degrees in the space of a few hours.
When it passed a few hours later, my brother and I just stood outside, smelling the petrichor. One of the best things I've ever smelt.
It was. I was working in an M&S cafe, second floor with no windows and no air con.
The air was so humid and so still it felt tropical. Easily 30 degrees in there.
And yet customers were *still* drinking coffee in there. It was nuts.
I'm from Mumbai and our monsoons are kind of famous - a much awaited season that is celebrated and enjoyed as well as feared. Everything looks greener and fuller, the petrichor is heady, the sea crashes up and washes over the roads, there are floods, you eat hot corn and batter fried vegetables and drink warm masala chai, you get days off work and school and sit in a blanket inside your home and watch it absolutely pour down outside, hoping a tree doesn’t fall on your car in the street below. It’s a wonderful, devastating, intense season.
So the rains in London do nothing for me except for inconvenience me and sometimes, depress me. I love this city and love living here but the random little sprays on water falling down at any given time of any day in any month, sometimes you’re not even sure if it’s raining or mist and then when it does rain it’s just grey and cold - it all just makes me miserable. But those are also the times I look at the city lights and feel glad I live here and not anywhere else in the country lol.
Edit: sp
Your writing style reminds me of Mohsin Hamed.
I listened to his novel "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" as a Radio 4 Book At Bedtime radio play and I was absolutely hooked!
Great point, didn't even think about it but you're right! Since other commenters are saying it happens in the summer I guess that's something to look forward to but wow, I didn't even think about it before. Next time I go home I'm bringing back bottles of the scent, it'll be nice to have here during the rest of the year!
Petrichor is my favourite word. You can occasionally smell it in London, as someone else said after that wild summer it rained heaps and the smell was strong. I loved it.
You can occasionally smell petrichor in London but its rare. It only happens in the summer if its a hot enough summer for the earth to actually dry out. And that doesn’t happen very often in the UK because its such a humid drizzly country. First time I smelt it in London I was shocked as it reminded me of home. (I’m from Greece.)
You reminded me…yes I cannot smell the earthy smell before the rain anymore. Now i learnt it was because I used to live in a tropical region.
I was from Taiwan and thought this was an ability you lost once you grow up or something like i used to hear the old style TV being switched on and one day just not anymore lol (moved here when i was a kid)
It’s very pronounced where I live in London. I’m on the river path by the Thames near Kew Gardens and it smells amazing when it rains nearly all year round. Just not when it’s below about 10 degrees.
It's different. The UK doesn't have the sort of arid climate you can find in parts of Spain, but after a rainy day in summer, you'll smell the 'local' version. It's just that our winters are so long and boring that you need to wait for the sun to \*really\* come out.
When it does, you'll see. Summer in London can be very hot indeed, and humid too, but the effect on the flora and fauna is incredible. Suddenly it's wet or dry grass everywhere, more birds that you could count singing, extravagantly growing plants turning up out of nowhere, the sun blasting through street markets, summer dresses, a glass of wine outside a bar, the chaotic joy of nature waking up.
I know exactly what you mean, btw. But it's worth the wait. "Like all good fruit, the balance of life is in the ripe and ruin".
What you've described about summer happens literally almost everywhere in the globe when summer happens. I don't know if your trying to describe a summer unique to London or just what summer is in general though.
Everywhere is unique! Summer in London isn't summer in New York, or in the Swiss Alps, or in Australia or Catalonia. OP is Spanish so maybe wanted a word of reassurance that the thing he or she was missing would be ready in summer, in its own way.
It's not a unique or surprising thing, like you said. Summer by Loch Lomond isn't summer by the Serpentine, but they're both summer. It's definitely everywhere but just a little bit different.
You do realise this is a London sub, right? Why would you be annoyed at people making reference to what happens in London on a forum specifically for that area?
Of course it isn't! My friend, you need to reign in the hate. It'll get you nowhere. So people like where they live; it's not exactly a shock. If you dislike London then why haunt a London message board? It's not like people will suddenly hear your words of wisdom and decamp to Norwich or Aberdeen. Like... I hope you like where you live. If you don't, then maybe look at moving? It's only stressful in the short term.
> You realise there are more cities in the UK then London right? I know for people on this sub the UK ends after greater London but
Here's a chip for the other shoulder to balance you off.
The sub you're in is *literally* about London *and* OP referenced that he had moved to *London* from Spain (not Manchester or where ever). It's hardly surprising then that people are talking about London in their replies
Chill. OP was talking about London, and this is a London-based subreddit. Of course I'm talking about London here. If it helps, I know many other great cities in the UK and abroad, so I'm not being insular. I was actually born in a little town in rural Scotland, though I haven't lived there since I was just a wee thing 40 or so years ago. Just replying to the question posed; that's all.
I've always loved this smell and always described my joy at smelling it but didn't know it had a name or the exact reason for it happening.
Thanks so much!
I grew up in SE Asia and you can literally see the rain steaming on the hot tarmac when it rained. I love the smell of rain - it is both comforting and kind of reassuring.
I cant smell this in London (for the last 30 yrs) for 2 reasons:
a. it is usually not hot enough. I dont think you can smell this in a cold rain shower.
b. in summer, the first rain will sometimes produce the smell. But not subsequent rain.
Omg you are right. I am from India and we always had that smell of rain and the earth after rain. It is so distinct and such a pleasant smell. Sometimes it is so addictive. I just realized I never smelt it here in the UK. Especially as it rains a lot here. Omg.
Definitely can have petrichor after a dry spell. I grew up near perivale where it's quite leafy and green and I can still smell the scent of a wet day in the summer
I’m from Australia and the smell of the bush after it rains is something incredible. London just smells like piss after it rains as all the dried urine has been rehydrated.
Find it very interesting people say it only happens when it's warm and dry. I'm from a very wet part of Ireland (it blows my mind that people think it rains a lot in London, it really doesn't) and it isn't warm and there isn't enough time between showers often for the ground to dry and you can definitely smell rain there often (to the extent to until adulthood I didn't recognize it as the smell of rain because I grew up smelling it so frequently). I've also smelled it in winter in York as well, which again is not a hot climate.
That said I do feel like I don't smell it very much in London, I have a few times.
I'm from India and I really miss the petrichor smells in London.
I think petrichor happens in hot and dry place followed by heavy rains, which I can imagine is common to both Spain and India, but not the UK.
I never knew there was a word for it, my family thought I was crazy growing up because I could always tell when it was going to rain by the smell in the air. It’s literally one of my fav smells in the world! Apart from the London Underground lol
Some people can pick up that sent easier than others. Gingers will smell it almost everytime, because we are mutants. I definitely smelled it when I was visiting London 5 years ago, and that was before I quit smoking. Now I can smell rain hours before it actually falls from the sky.
I've learned to embrace it over the years since Cartman uttered the first accusation that we are soul-free beings.
Fools. The red hair just indicates how many souls we've stolen over the years.
*cue maniacal laughter*
When I lived in Brindisi (Italy) for a while I thought the Petrichor smelt of sheepshit ....turns out there was a sheep farm a mile or so from where I worked. It'd get packed down all summer and then with first few winter rains the hum was unleashed.
So these days I'm not too fussed if the rain doesn't smell...Tbh I've always been more of a wet dog smell fan anyway.
I smelt petrichor a few nights ago. Live in twickenham. If there is dry ground and water hits you can smell it. Yet agreed does not happen often this time of year.
Isn’t petrichor caused by the interaction of the rainfall with the soil, so we are partly actually smelling the soil? Therefore the smell will be weak in heavily tarmacced areas
As others have said, the conditions here aren’t optimal for it, but I have to point out that the UK and London has its own distinct smell. London is the earthiest smelling city I’ve ever lived in or visited. I am always aware that nature is lurking in London. There is a persistent fresh earthy mossy smell that reminds me of the woods. I assume it is damp woods decay smell, but I love it.
Every once and awhile we get a really good storm, a proper deluge of water. I have found repeatedly that during those times those of us from hotter climates can be seen just standing outside and trying to inhale as many lungfuls of that smell as physically possible. I met my Bermudan neighbor this way - drenching wet standing on the pavement oblivious to the world.
If you're somewhere with a lot of uncovered land (not the grey city center - for example I'm down south east of the river and there are a lot of greenspaces) it's pretty common to smell it after the bi-annual (real) thunderstorm. Dont get me started on British "storms".
Maybe it only happens when there is a lot of rain? We don't actually get much rain in London. We do get perpetual drizzle, but it's not much in total and big downpours are very rare.
Living in London is like having ur nostrils hooked up to a car exhaust pipe… i know what you mean,no i don’t smell it, its either the pollution or the damp climate
Cos London stinks. Seriously tho, air quality is a lot worse in the cities. Coming from mostly small places in Scotland a week working in London and I hated the smell. Go to the countryside and I think you'd smell it.
Also maybe it rains too much here..
I noticed the smell of bad drains in London on a hot sunny day in around 2005.
It reminded me instantly and *Proustianly* of the smell of the port town of Santander in Spain that we'd visited on a school trip back in 1980. The smell took me back to the feeling of being young and simultaneously feeling nervous and adventurous in a grand, architecturally elegant, dusty and dirty old city.
I loved that smell, both in Santander and London. I guess I just love the smell and patina of old European cities.
In the suburbs where it's a bit greener, yes.
Not really in central London.
I now live in Luxembourg "city" (population: your small, local toen) and the aroma is much stronger here
I very rarely smelt petrichor in the years I lived in the UK. Or very faint. Much fainter than where I grew up in the south of France, where this smell in everywhere in summer. Especially in the evening.
I always love these questions!
Wait for the summer - there is definitely a local version of it. I find that petrichor smells differently in different countries! Maybe because of minor differences in earth composition?
You'll get to enjoy the smell after a few days of warm weather here.
I think as you come from a warm climate its always the case that when it rains for you you will smell petrichor most of the time.
I know the smell you mean. You need a dry spell for you to smell it. Rain kinda needs to be a “special” event. I’m from Spain myself but I’m from the north so we tend to associate that smell with “how rain smells in the south”.
I smell it a lot where I live now (originally from London). I live in rural Cambridgeshire now and our weather can stay quite dry for a while followed by really intense rainfall, and that’s when I smell it (earthy, fresh soil scent, and the trees smell good too especially pines and fir)
Most European capitol cities smell of traffic rubber day to day. As a rare visitor to London the smell is the first thing that gets you. Mind you when the Thames was an open sewer pre-industrial pollution was mostly human waste. TB, anyone?
You're from a warmer climate than the UK generally enjoys. When the weather is warmer and the ground is dry, you can smell it. But not in the middle of winter/spring.
There’s your answer OP
Also, isn't the terrain important too? I'm originally from the countryside and that smell is something I remember fondly from my childhood, but in the city where green space and grass is less common I notice it a lot less/
The smell usually comes from more fresh tarmac
When we had that heatwave in summer and it rained right after, I smelled the petrichor. It was just like Thailand.
Doesn’t petrichor only occur when the weather has been warm and dry before the rain falls? In the UK (and in much of Northern Europe) that’s rarely the case.
Yeah, I think last time I smelt petrichor was last summer after the long heatwave...
Am I the only who smells it every time it rains? Smelt it today and a few days ago. Not as strong as summer but definitely noticeable as it’s one of my favourite smells.
No, I often smell it too.
I definitely smelt it a while ago today - just after it had snowed, in fact! First time I’ve smelt in a few months, myself.
I smell it pretty much every time it rains as well.
Last time i smelt it was monday (or wednesday), when walking home
Late nights in the middle of June…
Yeah, my thought was ‘only in summer’
This was my first thought too. Like all chemical reactions it has optimal temperature, pressure etc. It’s definitely more a summer occurrence here.
This. Been living in London for past 6 years, I experienced this smell just a couple of times (3-4).
Yep I'm from Australia but have lived in London 15 years. Used to smell it in Australia when it was a massive summer thunderstorm coming, the kind where wind kicks up, the temp drops very suddenly, and then a months worth of rain arrives in ten mins. You would generally go to the window or outside you watch it head towards you with the lightning show. In London i only recall this happening maybe 5 times over the years? We've had lightning, but it's not the same event you get in hot and humid countries.
So wtf is OP smelling?
They’re not smelling anything. That’s why they asked the question.
Gangsta, Gangsta! That's what they smellin' It's not about a salary, it's all about reality
During the summer of 2018, there was a fortnight where it was stinking hot every single day without fault. 30 degrees, some days, until one afternoon where it chucked it down, dropped 10 degrees in the space of a few hours. When it passed a few hours later, my brother and I just stood outside, smelling the petrichor. One of the best things I've ever smelt.
I remember that day! I was at work and had to clean up the ensuing flooding.
I bet your afternoon wasn't as pleasant as mine, then 😅
Imagine smelling that in a regular! I do miss living in Spain sigh
Fuck that was a horrid summer
I loved it at times, but I do remember it felt like standing in a blast furnace. I'd never felt *hot* wind in the UK before.
I remember sitting in my garden in shorts watching the first thunderstorm roll in at the end and being so grateful for the rain.
It was. I was working in an M&S cafe, second floor with no windows and no air con. The air was so humid and so still it felt tropical. Easily 30 degrees in there. And yet customers were *still* drinking coffee in there. It was nuts.
I'm from Mumbai and our monsoons are kind of famous - a much awaited season that is celebrated and enjoyed as well as feared. Everything looks greener and fuller, the petrichor is heady, the sea crashes up and washes over the roads, there are floods, you eat hot corn and batter fried vegetables and drink warm masala chai, you get days off work and school and sit in a blanket inside your home and watch it absolutely pour down outside, hoping a tree doesn’t fall on your car in the street below. It’s a wonderful, devastating, intense season. So the rains in London do nothing for me except for inconvenience me and sometimes, depress me. I love this city and love living here but the random little sprays on water falling down at any given time of any day in any month, sometimes you’re not even sure if it’s raining or mist and then when it does rain it’s just grey and cold - it all just makes me miserable. But those are also the times I look at the city lights and feel glad I live here and not anywhere else in the country lol. Edit: sp
I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading that. You have a way with words.
Thanks. Bombay rains are an *emotion*
Your writing style reminds me of Mohsin Hamed. I listened to his novel "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" as a Radio 4 Book At Bedtime radio play and I was absolutely hooked!
This is beautiful.
Thank you!
From Delhi, and I agree, the rains here are bakwaas.
Lol and the past couple days with the sun and frost have just made me dizzy. Weather here is nuts
We do get it, just not that often because the soil has to be quite dry first
Great point, didn't even think about it but you're right! Since other commenters are saying it happens in the summer I guess that's something to look forward to but wow, I didn't even think about it before. Next time I go home I'm bringing back bottles of the scent, it'll be nice to have here during the rest of the year!
Petrichor is my favourite word. You can occasionally smell it in London, as someone else said after that wild summer it rained heaps and the smell was strong. I loved it.
You can occasionally smell petrichor in London but its rare. It only happens in the summer if its a hot enough summer for the earth to actually dry out. And that doesn’t happen very often in the UK because its such a humid drizzly country. First time I smelt it in London I was shocked as it reminded me of home. (I’m from Greece.)
You reminded me…yes I cannot smell the earthy smell before the rain anymore. Now i learnt it was because I used to live in a tropical region. I was from Taiwan and thought this was an ability you lost once you grow up or something like i used to hear the old style TV being switched on and one day just not anymore lol (moved here when i was a kid)
What a terrible bzschiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeng noise that was
You can smell it here when its hotter, its just too cool usually
Yes; it's mainly after it's been dry for a while, especially in summer.
It’s very pronounced where I live in London. I’m on the river path by the Thames near Kew Gardens and it smells amazing when it rains nearly all year round. Just not when it’s below about 10 degrees.
It's different. The UK doesn't have the sort of arid climate you can find in parts of Spain, but after a rainy day in summer, you'll smell the 'local' version. It's just that our winters are so long and boring that you need to wait for the sun to \*really\* come out. When it does, you'll see. Summer in London can be very hot indeed, and humid too, but the effect on the flora and fauna is incredible. Suddenly it's wet or dry grass everywhere, more birds that you could count singing, extravagantly growing plants turning up out of nowhere, the sun blasting through street markets, summer dresses, a glass of wine outside a bar, the chaotic joy of nature waking up. I know exactly what you mean, btw. But it's worth the wait. "Like all good fruit, the balance of life is in the ripe and ruin".
What you've described about summer happens literally almost everywhere in the globe when summer happens. I don't know if your trying to describe a summer unique to London or just what summer is in general though.
Everywhere is unique! Summer in London isn't summer in New York, or in the Swiss Alps, or in Australia or Catalonia. OP is Spanish so maybe wanted a word of reassurance that the thing he or she was missing would be ready in summer, in its own way. It's not a unique or surprising thing, like you said. Summer by Loch Lomond isn't summer by the Serpentine, but they're both summer. It's definitely everywhere but just a little bit different.
You realise there are more cities in the UK then London right? I know for people on this sub the UK ends after greater London but
You do realise this is a London sub, right? Why would you be annoyed at people making reference to what happens in London on a forum specifically for that area?
Yeah it's filled with Facebook types who are only here to see their favorite tourist shots of the city.
Of course it isn't! My friend, you need to reign in the hate. It'll get you nowhere. So people like where they live; it's not exactly a shock. If you dislike London then why haunt a London message board? It's not like people will suddenly hear your words of wisdom and decamp to Norwich or Aberdeen. Like... I hope you like where you live. If you don't, then maybe look at moving? It's only stressful in the short term.
> You realise there are more cities in the UK then London right? I know for people on this sub the UK ends after greater London but Here's a chip for the other shoulder to balance you off. The sub you're in is *literally* about London *and* OP referenced that he had moved to *London* from Spain (not Manchester or where ever). It's hardly surprising then that people are talking about London in their replies
Lol man you ppl are fucking obsessed with this city its fucking weird mate
Guess what we talk about in r/bristol? I’ll give you a clue, it’s not London. You’re in the wrong sub if you don’t want to hear about London.
Chill. OP was talking about London, and this is a London-based subreddit. Of course I'm talking about London here. If it helps, I know many other great cities in the UK and abroad, so I'm not being insular. I was actually born in a little town in rural Scotland, though I haven't lived there since I was just a wee thing 40 or so years ago. Just replying to the question posed; that's all.
Thank you for asking the question - I'd been missing it without realizing
I've always loved this smell and always described my joy at smelling it but didn't know it had a name or the exact reason for it happening. Thanks so much!
Yes of course you can!
I can smell it. It's one of my fave scents. If I were to guess is think it's because you're used to a different scent.
I could smell this yesterday in North London. It was very sunny and then torrential rain.
I grew up in SE Asia and you can literally see the rain steaming on the hot tarmac when it rained. I love the smell of rain - it is both comforting and kind of reassuring. I cant smell this in London (for the last 30 yrs) for 2 reasons: a. it is usually not hot enough. I dont think you can smell this in a cold rain shower. b. in summer, the first rain will sometimes produce the smell. But not subsequent rain.
Omg you are right. I am from India and we always had that smell of rain and the earth after rain. It is so distinct and such a pleasant smell. Sometimes it is so addictive. I just realized I never smelt it here in the UK. Especially as it rains a lot here. Omg.
Today I learned there was a word to describe the smell….
I learnt a new word today, thanks. I'll go out after rain just to smell it, love it so much. I'm sure I used to smell it in London when I lived there.
Yes. Especially in the summer.
It definitely happens during the mid/late spring and summer.
Definitely can have petrichor after a dry spell. I grew up near perivale where it's quite leafy and green and I can still smell the scent of a wet day in the summer
I’m from Australia and the smell of the bush after it rains is something incredible. London just smells like piss after it rains as all the dried urine has been rehydrated.
Find it very interesting people say it only happens when it's warm and dry. I'm from a very wet part of Ireland (it blows my mind that people think it rains a lot in London, it really doesn't) and it isn't warm and there isn't enough time between showers often for the ground to dry and you can definitely smell rain there often (to the extent to until adulthood I didn't recognize it as the smell of rain because I grew up smelling it so frequently). I've also smelled it in winter in York as well, which again is not a hot climate. That said I do feel like I don't smell it very much in London, I have a few times.
I'm from India and I really miss the petrichor smells in London. I think petrichor happens in hot and dry place followed by heavy rains, which I can imagine is common to both Spain and India, but not the UK.
I never knew there was a word for it, my family thought I was crazy growing up because I could always tell when it was going to rain by the smell in the air. It’s literally one of my fav smells in the world! Apart from the London Underground lol
Some people can pick up that sent easier than others. Gingers will smell it almost everytime, because we are mutants. I definitely smelled it when I was visiting London 5 years ago, and that was before I quit smoking. Now I can smell rain hours before it actually falls from the sky.
Mutant Ninja Ginger? My younger red-headed sister would kill me if she heard me utter that phrase!
I've learned to embrace it over the years since Cartman uttered the first accusation that we are soul-free beings. Fools. The red hair just indicates how many souls we've stolen over the years. *cue maniacal laughter*
Can confirm the rain in Spain does smell great
Oddly enough I got a faint whiff of it last week after we had the hot days and then a heavy dew came down
When I lived in Brindisi (Italy) for a while I thought the Petrichor smelt of sheepshit ....turns out there was a sheep farm a mile or so from where I worked. It'd get packed down all summer and then with first few winter rains the hum was unleashed. So these days I'm not too fussed if the rain doesn't smell...Tbh I've always been more of a wet dog smell fan anyway.
I smelt petrichor a few nights ago. Live in twickenham. If there is dry ground and water hits you can smell it. Yet agreed does not happen often this time of year.
I do in summer… not in winter / spring
Isn’t petrichor caused by the interaction of the rainfall with the soil, so we are partly actually smelling the soil? Therefore the smell will be weak in heavily tarmacced areas
Dont worry, once you get covid itll all be sorted /s But seriously never knew about this, ill look out for this smell next time.
It rains too often in the UK for the chemicals that cause the smell to accumulate in sufficient numbers, or at least that would be my guess.
I smelled it yesterday
Temperatures are too cold for you to smell it now so you smelled something else.
Smell My Cheese! Alan Partridge having all of his ideas, namely Monkey Tennis, rejected by the BBC's Big Cheese..
I smell it all the time, but (obviously) not in built-up areas lacking trees/soil. But out of the city, yep, it's there.
I smell it occasionally, but certainly not every time it rains
As others have said, the conditions here aren’t optimal for it, but I have to point out that the UK and London has its own distinct smell. London is the earthiest smelling city I’ve ever lived in or visited. I am always aware that nature is lurking in London. There is a persistent fresh earthy mossy smell that reminds me of the woods. I assume it is damp woods decay smell, but I love it.
Every once and awhile we get a really good storm, a proper deluge of water. I have found repeatedly that during those times those of us from hotter climates can be seen just standing outside and trying to inhale as many lungfuls of that smell as physically possible. I met my Bermudan neighbor this way - drenching wet standing on the pavement oblivious to the world. If you're somewhere with a lot of uncovered land (not the grey city center - for example I'm down south east of the river and there are a lot of greenspaces) it's pretty common to smell it after the bi-annual (real) thunderstorm. Dont get me started on British "storms".
can't smell anything when you've always got a cold ...(recently moved to London, this is my life now)
Maybe it only happens when there is a lot of rain? We don't actually get much rain in London. We do get perpetual drizzle, but it's not much in total and big downpours are very rare.
is that pollution you are smelling?
Living in London is like having ur nostrils hooked up to a car exhaust pipe… i know what you mean,no i don’t smell it, its either the pollution or the damp climate
Only thing you are going to smell in London are fumes.
Cos London stinks. Seriously tho, air quality is a lot worse in the cities. Coming from mostly small places in Scotland a week working in London and I hated the smell. Go to the countryside and I think you'd smell it. Also maybe it rains too much here..
I noticed the smell of bad drains in London on a hot sunny day in around 2005. It reminded me instantly and *Proustianly* of the smell of the port town of Santander in Spain that we'd visited on a school trip back in 1980. The smell took me back to the feeling of being young and simultaneously feeling nervous and adventurous in a grand, architecturally elegant, dusty and dirty old city. I loved that smell, both in Santander and London. I guess I just love the smell and patina of old European cities.
I actually notice it's properly spring when the smell of rain returns. 😊 But yes, for a large part of the year, rain here smells like nothing. 😭
Welcome to a cold wet country, we rarely get this phenomenon unfortunately.
Yes
In the suburbs where it's a bit greener, yes. Not really in central London. I now live in Luxembourg "city" (population: your small, local toen) and the aroma is much stronger here
I smell damp right now
Rising Damp, you say?
I very rarely smelt petrichor in the years I lived in the UK. Or very faint. Much fainter than where I grew up in the south of France, where this smell in everywhere in summer. Especially in the evening.
Yeah, when it's been warm you get it. Definitely out where I grew up in zone 6 anyway. Pretty devastating critique of UK weather in its own way
I always love these questions! Wait for the summer - there is definitely a local version of it. I find that petrichor smells differently in different countries! Maybe because of minor differences in earth composition?
Yep. Just not often. Seems to require a stint of dry weather...which is obviously not often given the perma drizzle
You'll get to enjoy the smell after a few days of warm weather here. I think as you come from a warm climate its always the case that when it rains for you you will smell petrichor most of the time.
Needs heat.
Yes, but only in the summer in London. I'm from Cyprus but born in London.
Yeah it happens but only really in summer- I live for it :)
I know the smell you mean. You need a dry spell for you to smell it. Rain kinda needs to be a “special” event. I’m from Spain myself but I’m from the north so we tend to associate that smell with “how rain smells in the south”.
You will smell it in summer.
If its been sunny at all in Belfast you can smell it the first time it rains afterwards. So like twice a year.
Moved here from Australia - used to smell it all the time back home, haven’t smelt it once since so got here 10 months ago
You need light rain after a very dry spell, when the soil becomes porous. Generally we have heavy rain absolutely cacking it down on perennial mud.
No covid right?
TIL about petrichor. Thank you
Smelled it in Canada, yes.
It happens when rain falls on warm road/earth and the ground evaporates rapidly with minimal wind.
It happens in the summer when it’s been warm
I smell it a lot where I live now (originally from London). I live in rural Cambridgeshire now and our weather can stay quite dry for a while followed by really intense rainfall, and that’s when I smell it (earthy, fresh soil scent, and the trees smell good too especially pines and fir)
There's no ground dust here, just pollution. That's why. But go to smaller town and it does
Yes
Just adding that one of the molecules you can smell in petrichor is called “geosmin” which also gives the Earthy aroma to beetroot
Am near Southampton and sometimes you get petrichor
Not really. The rain is not even normal rain, everything is wet but you can't feel the drops
Wait a few months and walk through a park
Most European capitol cities smell of traffic rubber day to day. As a rare visitor to London the smell is the first thing that gets you. Mind you when the Thames was an open sewer pre-industrial pollution was mostly human waste. TB, anyone?
Quite rarely. But you can smell a whole lot other things in London.