Things to do outside in the rain

Why rain is fine

Three things change when it rains. First, the light goes soft and even, which is why photographers like overcast days: no harsh shadows, colors look deeper, wet surfaces pick up reflections. Second, the sounds change: traffic hisses, gutters run, and a hood turns everything into a private radio. Third, the places that are normally full are suddenly yours. You can walk a park path at three on a Saturday afternoon and meet two people and a dog.

The practical side is simpler than it looks: a jacket with a hood that actually keeps water out, shoes you don't mind soaking, and a dry pair of socks waiting at home. An umbrella is optional and in any wind a nuisance. A warm shower afterward is part of the plan, not a consolation.

In a drizzle

Light rain changes almost nothing except who else is out. Everything below is an ordinary walk with one extra job.

1. Find something blue on a wet day Pick blue and photograph a subject that's mostly that color: a door, a bike, a mailbox, a sign. Rain makes blue richer than it is in sun.
2. Count the umbrellas Walk a busy street for ten minutes and count umbrellas by color. Black usually wins. Find the one that doesn't fit.
3. Where your roof drains Follow the downspout at the corner of your building to the ground and see where the water goes next: a drain, a barrel, a gutter in the street. Then do the same for the house next door.
4. The dry route Try to walk half a mile staying under cover as much as possible: awnings, arcades, covered passages, tree canopy. Score yourself on how wet you aren't at the end.
5. Three new streets while it rains Pick three streets you've never been down and walk them in the rain. Nothing about them will look the way it does on a dry day.

In real rain

If it's coming down properly, the plan changes from walking to being somewhere.

1. Stand under something and listen A bus shelter, a bandstand, a bridge arch, a deep doorway. Give it five minutes and count how many separate sounds the rain makes.
2. Visit the water when it's running A stream, a weir or a storm drain that's normally a trickle becomes loud in heavy rain. Go and stand on the bridge and watch from above.
3. Afternoon in the rain Simply being outside between noon and six while it rains, for twenty minutes, is a complete task. It's what most people won't do.
4. Walk the whole way Go somewhere you'd otherwise drive, in the rain, on purpose, and arrive. It's a mile that stays with you.
5. The fogged-up window from outside Find a café or a laundromat whose windows have fogged up from inside and photograph the shapes the condensation makes. Without any people in the shot.

In the hour after it stops

The best part of a rainy day is the twenty minutes after the last drop, and most people miss it because they've stopped checking.

1. Out early on wet ground If it rained overnight, be outside between six and ten while the ground is still dark and wet. The town is clean, the air is clean, and the sky is often clearing.
2. Snails and worms on the sidewalk Right after rain the sidewalk is briefly full of creatures that are otherwise invisible. Count them on one block. Step around them.
3. The roof garden Look up for plants growing out of gutters, chimneys and roof edges. Rain is what keeps them alive up there, and after a shower they look their best.
4. Glossy black Photograph something black that's shining with wet: a railing, a bike saddle, a car hood, asphalt. Fill most of the frame with it.
5. Water by the water Walk a stretch of canal or riverbank right after rain, when the level has risen and the color has changed. Keep it on one side for a mile.

With a friend

Rain is a good excuse for company. Two people under two hoods, walking side by side, talk more easily than they would across a table, and there is a shared ridiculousness in being out in it at all. Split the umbrella count between you, one takes colors, the other takes broken ones. Or agree on a café at the far end of a mile and walk to it, wet, as the reward.

A quest that knows the forecast

If you'd like the deciding done for you, RLQuest picks three to ten quests each morning from a library of more than 2,700, and it takes the weather into account. On a wet day the quests shift: be outside between noon and six while it's raining, photograph something mostly blue on a wet day, uncover three new map tiles while it rains, or be out early while the ground is still wet. The app checks what it can, the recorded route, new tiles on your hexagon map, the photo itself, and says so when it can't. Weather is a filter for the quests, not a dare.

RLQuest is free to download for iPhone and Android, with a Premium subscription that adds more quests per day. The ideas above need nothing but a jacket.