Weather & Space News Blog
 since Feb. 2003
 WX - Telegraph abbreviation for weather often used with Morse code
 The Wire - Name once given to the telegraph

My Top 25 Meteorological Songs: (Disclaimer: may include songs with only brief references to weather)

I’ve thought about making this compilation for a while now (I’m just now putting these into a playlist in my iPod). I’m not really sure if it will be of any use to you, but since it’s a relatively slow weather weekend, there isn’t much else to post here anyway. Links take you to the artists’ official Web sites and Amazon.com’s CD review/sales pages. Here we go…

#1: Cloudbusting
Artist: Kate Bush
Album: Hounds of Love
Released: 1985
Chance of being played on my iPod: 100%
Comments: Based on the novel "A Book of Dreams" by Peter Reich, this song is about a boy whose father is viewed as a threat for making a machine that created rain and is taken away by the government. An amazing video (one of the best of the 80′s) stars Donald Sutherland as the father and Bush as the boy. I remember seeing the video at the beginning of 1986, along with the excellent video for "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)."

#2: Here Comes The Flood
Artist: Peter Gabriel
Album: Peter Gabriel
Released: 1977
Chance of being played on my iPod: 95%
Comments: One of Peter Gabriel’s best songs and closer for his first solo album. Love the opening line, "When night shows, the signals grow on radios…"

#3: Summer I
Artist: Vivaldi
Album: Four Seasons
Released: 1725 (First published in the collection Opus 8)
Chance of being played on my iPod: 90%
Comments: The first and only classical CD I own, thanks to plenty of airplay on The Weather Channel’s "Local Forecast" segment sometime around 1994.

#4: A Little Rain
Artist: Tom Waits
Album: Bone Machine
Released: 1992
Chance of being played on my iPod: 85%
Comments: "November" was a close second choice, but I have decided that
is the best Tom Waits song that makes reference to weather…

#5: Song For a Winter’s Night
Artist: Sarah McLachlan
Album: Rarities, B–Sides & Other Stuff
Released: 1996
Chance of being played on my iPod: 80%
Comments: This Gordon Lightfoot song leaves no questions as to what it’s about. Great listening while snowed in.

#6: The Big Sky (Meteorological Mix)
Artist: Kate Bush
Album: Hounds of Love (Remastered)
Released: 1986, Remastered in 1997
Chance of being played on my iPod: 75%
Comments: How many songs have Meteorology in the title? The middle segment of this remixed version of "The Big Sky" is best, as the voices of several "meteorologists" describe what the clouds in the sky look like: "This cloud should be removed immediately! That cloud looks like industrial waste!"

#7: Red Rain
Artist: Peter Gabriel
Album: So
Released: 1986
Chance of being played on my iPod: 70%
Comments: From flooding to rain, Peter created some great songs in the 70s and 80s, and the album "So" is amazing.

#8: Lightning Crashes
Artist: Live
Album: Throwing Copper
Released: 1994
Chance of being played on my iPod: 65%
Comments: On the best album of 1995.

#9: I Wish It Would Rain Down
Artist: Phil Collins
Album: …But Seriously
Released: 1989
Chance of being played on my iPod: 60%
Comments: Demo version is pretty cool too.

#10. Thunderstorm
Artist: Matthew Sweet
Album: In Reverse
Released: 1999
Chance of being played on my iPod: 55%
Comments: Epic 9+ minute closer to his best album since “Girlfriend.”

#11: The Tide Is High
Artist: Blondie
Album: Autoamerican
Released: 1980
Chance of being played on my iPod: 50%
Comments: Chance of high seas, 100%

12. Purple Rain — Prince (How could I forget this one?)
13. Summertime — The Sundays
14. Summertime — DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
15. Rain King — Counting Crows
16. Steal My Sunshine — Len
17. Here Comes The Rain Again — Eurythmics
18. Electrical Storm [William Orbit Mix] — U2
19. Sunshine in the Shade — The Fixx
20. Sunshine in the Rain — Ryan Farish
21. The Light Is Shining — Twila Paris
22. Rain — Madonna
23. Boys of Summer — Don Henley
24. Fire and Rain — James Taylor
25. Play in the Rain (Continued) — Lindsey Buckingham
Bonus: Dreams — Fleetwood Mac (Mostly off–topic, but mentions thunder, and it was one of my first memories of hearing a song on the radio — ironically during a big storm)

I’m certain that some of your favorite songs with weather themes are not listed here. If this is the case, feel free to add ‘em to the comments link at the bottom of this post.

My Favorite Meteorological Album: (Disclaimer: may include songs with only brief references to weather)

Hounds of Love
Artist: Kate Bush
Released: 1985
Chance of being played on my iPod: 85–100%
Comments: In Nov. 1985, I remember hearing Kate Bush for the first time as then–Top 40 station K–104 in Erie, Penn., was playing "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" in high rotation. A few weeks later, I decided to buy this album on cassette tape and was immediately amazed at how different yet spellbinding her music was. I’ve been a big fan since. Most of the songs on this album have references to relationships, water, and weather: Thunder is mentioned and heard in her biggest U.S. hit to date, "Running Up That Hill," clouds appear in "The Big Sky," rainmaking comprises "Cloudbusting," and the entire second half of the album, subtitled "The Ninth Wave," is about a woman who spends a night alone in water and dreams of drowning. Reviewers on Amazon.com and epinions.com seem to have nothing bad to say about this album. Neither do I.

Top 5 WXnation.com city weather and webcam pages visited on Saturday: 1. Phoenix 2. Los Angeles 3. San Diego 4. Vancouver 5. Orlando … See the top 20 so far this month in the center column of our home page.