Are "It is rainy now" and "it is raining now" the same? Also what is the verb equivalent to the adjective "sunny"?

Question

This is a little bit confusing.

rainy (adj): having or bringing a lot of rain

a rainy day

the rainy season

the rainiest place in Britain

---

Ad other dictionary

rain‧y /ˈreɪni/ ●●● S3 adjective

1 a rainy period of time is one when it rains a lot SYN wet

a cold rainy day in October

I hate rainy weather.

the rainy season

---

rain [intransitive] when it rains, water falls from the sky in drops

Is it raining?

It had been raining hard all night.

It hardly rained at all last summer.

It started to rain.

---

So, it seems like "it is rainy now" means "it is raining a lot now".

Ok, let say, we look out through the window, and the rain is falling from the sky, and the rain is light not too heavy or a lot. In this situation, do we say

"It is rainy now" or "it is raining now"?

And in the case that the rain is falling heavily or a lot outside. do we say

"It is rainy now" or "it is raining a lot now"?

Also, we have the adjective "sunny" but we have no verb equivalent to it.

sun‧ny /ˈsʌni/ ●●● S3 adjective

1 having a lot of light from the sun SYN bright

a warm sunny day

a sunny morning

a nice sunny room

I hope it’s sunny tomorrow.

sunny periods/spells/intervals (=periods when it is sunny)

Tuesday will be dry with sunny spells.

---

Ok, let say, we look out through the window, and it has some light from the sun but not a lot. In that situation, do we say

"it is sunny now" or "it has sun light now"?

In the case that it has a lot of sun light outside. Do we say

"it is sunny now" or "it has a lot of sun light now"?

Finally, Are “It is rainy now” and “it is raining now” the same? Also what is the verb equivalent to the adjective “sunny”?

Note: Some says

"It's raining now" is more common, but both "It's raining now" & "It's rainy now" are common and often used.

"It's rainy outside now." works, but "It's raining outside now." works, too.

Although, most agree that "rainy" often stands before nouns such as a rainy day, a rainy season, etc

Answer 1

Your definition of rainy means 'a period when there are frequent showers' (a lot doesn't refer to heavy rain). So if rain is falling now we say "It is raining".

There is normally 'some light from the sun' in the daytime. A sunny day is when the sun is strong and there are few clouds in the sky. "It has sunlight" is not idiomatic English. We can say "The sun is shining", which is the only verbal equivalent to "It is raining".