Sun shower
In a sun shower the rain often falls from a cloud that has already drifted past or sits far upwind, so you are getting wet from weather that has technically gone, much like the things that still land on you after they are over.
What it may mean
A sun shower feels like the sky has made a mistake, and folklore gave it livelier causes: a fox wedding passing by in Japan, a leopardess giving birth among the Vai of West Africa. The sun is out, the sidewalk steams, and yet warm drops land on your arms from what looks like a clear patch overhead. The rain is real; its cloud is somewhere else. Drops take minutes to fall and a breeze can carry them a long way, so the shower often comes from a cloud that has already moved on or sits off to one side. That happens to people too. A conversation that ended last week can still be falling on you today; a hard year can keep dripping long after the sky has cleared. Knowing which cloud the rain came from makes it easier to stand in the sun and let it dry.
Depending on how you saw it
A sun shower with a rainbow
Sun showers are rainbow weather: rain in front of you and sunlight behind. Turn your back to the sun and search for the arc. Where do you need to turn away from the obvious, dazzling thing to find what the moment is offering?
Watching it from a window
From indoors, a sun shower looks almost staged: glittering drops, a shining sidewalk and people outside squinting up at a blue sky in confusion. Half the fun is watching everyone else work it out. When did you last enjoy a moment simply by watching how other people reacted to it?
Caught without an umbrella
Nobody carries an umbrella under a blue sky, so a sun shower catches everyone out, and people laugh more than they complain. Being caught by something mild can be fun. Could you meet the next mild surprise this week with a laugh instead of a frown?
Why it happens in nature
A sun shower is rain falling while the sun shines where you are. Often the drops come from a cloud that has moved past or lies upwind, and the wind carries them sideways as they fall; sometimes a small shower cloud passes through an otherwise clear sky. A low sun often adds a rainbow opposite it.
What folk beliefs say
Japan
In Japan, rain falling during sunshine meant that a wedding procession of foxes was passing nearby, and children would run to the house pillars and put their ears to the timbers to hear the foxes' footfalls.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 974. View the page
Vai people (West Africa)
Among the Vai people of West Africa, it was always said when the sun shone while rain was falling that a leopardess was giving birth to her young.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 2 (1903), vol. 2, p. 974. View the page
To reflect on
What is still falling on you from a storm that has already passed?