Thread: Can Rain Catch Fire

I wanted to know if the levels of certain chemicals where high enough with the rite situation can rain catch fire?

i doubt that very much, unless you're referring to a rain of petrol, which i find rather hard to imagine would happen under natural conditions

Rain is distilled water. A river or pond might be so badly polluted that it catches fire but I can't immagine rain being so polluted.

Only if Adele sets fire to it...

Not on earth. Rain is far from pour, often filled with all kinds of particles, bacteria etc. Condensation and freezing is much more difficult without those particulates and aerols. But not so much that it could be inflammable.

Originally Posted by bryan

I wanted to know if the levels of certain chemicals where high enough with the rite situation can rain catch fire?

Why rain? Why not just water? Are you thinking methane rain like some suggest happens on Saturn's moon Titan?

Originally Posted by bryan

I wanted to know if the levels of certain chemicals where high enough with the rite situation can rain catch fire?

Very doubtful. There's a degree of filtration and reactivity in the atmosphere before moisture condenses to become rain. A compound would need to be light enough to be suspende in a drop of water without it descending immediately and flammable materials are usually to weighty to remain airborne for very long. Acid rain is not a compound but a mixture usually that accompanies rain. Chlorine or individual sulfur atoms are reacted with sunlight to create HCl or HFl or HS as a gas, then it condenses independently of the water molecules that become rain.

An atomic blast in the atmosphere, were it powerful enough, might strip the molecules of water apart, then render combustion. Even that is a long shot though.

It is just not possible