In a story of diligent factchecking and self-undermining, 24-year-old Amelia Cassell opened her weather app while standing in the rain to confirm that it was, in fact, raining in her area.
At the time of the event, Amelia was standing outside a bar smoking a cigarette when she began to feel droplets.
“It started gently, almost imperceptibly,” Amelia says. “It was like okay, there’s some sky water on me, but that could mean a lot of things.”
“Then within a minute it went from drops to what I would describe as more of a full-on drizzle,” she adds. “This was really disorienting, because no one had told me it was going to rain today. The concept of rain was not on my radar whatsoever.”
Despite being rained on, Amelia couldn’t be sure her lived experience of nature was real, so she followed up with the legitimate authorities.
“I opened my weather app, and that’s when I knew it was really raining, because it said ‘Rain’ with a graphic of rain happening,” Amelia says. “I was disappointed, but at least I got to the bottom of what was really going on.”
Some have questioned why Amelia needs to check the weather app to confirm her empirical observation, but the young self-doubter is at least steadfast on this approach.
“If it was sort of raining, then I checked the weather app and it said it wasn’t raining, that means it’s not really raining,” Amelia says. “It’s more like the sky just spilled a little, but getting an umbrella or going inside isn’t necessary. I don’t get why I have to defend the fact that I believe science.”
At press time, the sky had cleared, but Amelia remained under an awning as the weather app indicated thunderstorms.
