Three Meteorologists on Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Prince’s movie Purple Rain. “Purple Rain,” of course, is also a Prince song. Is it, though, meteorological as well? That is, given that there’s acid rain and black ice rain and freezing rain, is there some kind of purple rain that only people from Minnesota like Prince know about or have experienced?
To find out, I gathered a trio of meteorologists and asked them when, if ever, the forecast calls for such a hue…
Has there ever been purple rain?
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Andrew Markowitz, meteorologist in Denver: No.
Katie Nickolaou, Emmy-winning CBS morning meteorologist for WLNS: Not to my knowledge.
Rob Jones, meteorologist and hurricane chaser: There has never been purple liquid that has fallen from the sky. But sometimes, in the evening, in rain or even in snow, you’ll have the refraction of light that will make the sky turn purple.
If purple rain were ever to occur, what would be your best guess as to what caused it?
Jones: I imagine there’d have to be some sort of pollutant in the water that would turn the water purple.
Markowitz: If there was purple rain, I’d be very concerned that there were some chemicals in the atmosphere, and it would probably be something you wouldn’t want to ingest. It’d be some pollutant you wouldn’t want to be breathing in.
Nickolaou: I’ve been racking my brain about how you could get purple rain, and here’s what I came up with: I live in Battle Creek, Michigan, which has the Kellogg’s factory. They frequently make Froot Loops there, and the entire town will smell like Froot Loops and will be coated in sugar from the factory — you can go out and lick your car and it tastes like Froot Loops. So, I’m imagining, if you can get purple dye from a candy or a sugary factory, if that gets put into the air and the rain falls on it, it’ll absorb and you can have purple-tinted rain.
Given that, would purple rain cause, as the lyrics say, sorrow, pain or laughter?
Jones: I’d say sorrow. Purple just seems like a sad color.
Markowitz: I think it’d cause pain. That doesn’t sound very pleasant to me.
Nickolaou: It’d be laughter for sure. Imagine Froot Loop-scented rain!
And, because it’s Prince, what attire would you recommend for purple rain?
Nickolaou: Something flashy! Because, if it’s raining purple rain, people will be looking at that and not at you and you don’t want to get run over — we’re talking sequins and glitter and everything in between.
Jones: A wetsuit made to look like Barney the dinosaur.
Markowitz: A hazmat suit.
