Rain Day
Take a trip to Waynesburg, PA and join the celebration of life-giving rain. Delve deeper into patterns of rainfall and its importance to farming.
Celebrate the quirky meteorological tradition of Waynesburg's Rain Day to drive eco-tourism, agricultural education, and local community engagement in July.
- Did it rain on July 29th in your town? Join Waynesburg's 140+ year rainfall tradition.
- Why farmers and climate enthusiasts are obsessed with this small-town Pennsylvania phenomenon.
- Road trip to Waynesburg: Experience the legend of Rain Day and learn why water matters.
- Local history meets climate science—the story behind America's most reliable rainy day.
This is a day that has been celebrated for quite some time now. In fact, Rain Day first took place in the late 1800’s. We have a pharmacist, known as William Allison, to thank for this. He had a drugstore, which was located on High Street, which is the main street in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. He remarked that it always seemed to be raining on the 29th of July.
Because of this, he decided that we would keep a yearly record of the rainfall on this specific date. After the 1920’s, his brother, Albert Allison, continued to record the results. The late Byron Daily recorded this mystical event, which kept happening every year. It would have remained a local event if it was not for a newsman from the area.
In the 1930’s, John O’Hara decided that he would send stories about Rain Day to other newspapers. Because of this, Rain Day ended up spreading to all corners of the world. Every year, newspapers and other media outlets will often call into Waynesburg to find out if it is raining on this date.
Of course, other people have started to celebrate this date in their own areas by simply learning about rainfall and the importance of it, as well as spreading this awareness.