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New York is raining.

It is raining in New York.

Which one is correct?

As far as I learned, it is correct to use it to describe weather. However, is it possible to say New York is raining in colloquial English?

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3 Answers 3

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'It is raining' or 'It's raining' are the usual ways to say this.

However, you can get creative and say that a person, place or thing is raining. This can be figurative, as in

'Bob is raining on my parade' (= Bob is ruining my activity.)

or more to do with actual rain:

'New York is raining cats and dogs this morning' (= It's raining cats and dogs in New York this morning.) Here we are ascribing to New York the weather in New York in a substitution of the noun New York for the impersonal it that we usually use. You won't hear this often, but perhaps on the weather station.

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Only the latter, "It is raining in New York" works. New York is raining would not work and is the equivalent of saying, Bob is raining. New York is a state/city and cannot perform the verb rain.

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"It is raining in New York" or " New York is getting drenched in rain " would work.

you can refer to https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/192296/can-i-use-drenching-to-mean-being-drenched for the latter case

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    You can't use "getting drenched" as a general replacement for "it is raining". "Raining" is a neutral term that covers everything from drizzle to tropical downpour, and only refers to the immediate present, whereas "getting drenched" indicates heavy rain and adds a sense of prolonged rain as well.
    – Chappo
    Commented May 3, 2016 at 9:49

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