Rain, Rain, Go Away

Rain, Rain, Go Away
Come again another day,
All the Tropers want to play.

Nothing spoils plans for a day out like that day out being overcast and pouring down rain.

Often a form of Breather Episode, a common situation for series such as sitcoms, slice-of-life shows, and cartoons featuring children as its main cast. A rainy day forces the cast to remain indoors when they would much rather be outside. It forces them to find alternative entertainment. Depending on the severity of the storm, the electricity may go out and force them to find non-electronic forms of entertainment.

This can also be used more seriously for character development if, for instance, two characters are stuck in whatever shelter is handy at the time the storm hits. Can also cause a bit of Cabin Fever in some characters.

In media made in Japan, rainstorms are frequently substituted with typhoons, and rhymes about the weather are replaced with Teru Teru Bozu.

This trope is, in essence, when the plot for an episode is derived from bad weather either causing the characters to be unable to go outside or having to find some place to get shelter. If there is An Aesop about the untapped forms of entertainment available that don't require electricity or outdoor sports, the most popular activity is reading—in which case, Portal Books may appear.

Snowed In is the more extreme variation of this trope.

When the weather is an active menace, see Hostile Weather, which may turn the setting into a Closed Circle.

See Caught in the Rain and its related tropes for one form this sort of situation can take. Compare and contrast Cue the Rain.

Not to be confused with It Was a Dark and Stormy Night.

Examples of Rain, Rain, Go Away include:

Anime and Manga

Kanamemo featured an episode in which all the girls were stuck indoors due to a typhoon.
Not surprisingly, Windy Tales, being about girls who could control wind, also had an episode featuring a typhoon.
Haruhi Suzumiya: Someday in the Rain.
Keroro Gunsou has a few chapters that take place on rainy days. It's occasionally made a major plot point, since Keronians thrive in humid weather.

Literature

The Cat in the Hat - so they sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day.
A raging storm hits in the final chapter of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic, so the kids play a number of games to pass the time.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Rainy days force the Pevensie siblings to explore The Professor's Big Fancy House and, in doing so, find the Cool Gate of a wardrobe to the Magical Land of Narnia.
In The Secret Garden, the children have to work out that they can explore the house while it rains.
In Coraline, the heroine's parents forbid her to go out in rain, so she has to explore the house, and thus finds the secret door.

Live-Action TV

Married... with Children had an episode in which the Bundys and the D'Arcys were stuck in the basement during a tornado.
This was the plot of an episode of Pee Wees Playhouse, despite the fact that Pee-Wee spends most of the show indoors.

Music

Breaking Benjamin has a song patterned after the rhyme, called simply Rain:

Rain, rain, go away,
Come again another day,
All the world is waiting for the sun.

Trent Reznor sang this at the end of the Piss-Take Rap-laden "Down In It".
According to John Lennon, The Beatles' song "Rain" is a mockery of this mindset and general excessive griping about weather.

Newspaper Comics

Peanuts:
- A series (or two, or three) where Charlie Brown stays out on the mound at the baseball diamond in the rain because he thinks it's going to clear up.
- A series where Linus and Lucy think that Linus may have some kind of special powers because when he's out in the rain and sings "Rain Rain Go Away", it does.
Calvin and Hobbes had a story arc where the family goes camping and it starts raining once they get to the camp site. Despite Calvin's and mom's complaints, Dad decides to tough it out - for an entire week - but eventually he has enough and decides to pack it up. And in that very moment, the rain finally stops. Cue Face Palm and copious off-screen swearing.

Video Games

Persona 3 has a week in the game calendar in which a typhoon hits the city. The necessity of finding something to do, however, is removed by the hero becoming sick during the entire week.
- When it rains in Persona 4, all social links, save for The Hermit and the nighttime Social Links, are unavailable. It's most likely done to force the player to go to the available dungeon and rescue the trapped victim. Otherwise, there's often not much to do other than go to the local restaurant and attempt the Rainy Day Beef Bowl Challenge.
In one level of Gears of War 2, Marcus and Dom must stay in shelter or be torn to shreds when a rainstorm turns to deadly "razor-hail". A similar mechanic is in effect in one of the multiplayer levels, where the rain picking up signals players to seek shelter before it gets worse.
Likewise, Bulletstorm has a section where the electrical storm will disintegrate anyone exposed to the sky.

Western Animation

The Powerpuff Girls episode "The Powerpuff Girls' Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever" was all about the girls having to entertain themselves when the weather prevented any crime fighting.
An episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender had taking shelter from rain as the backdrop for the telling of Aang's and Zuko's backstories.
- More like Aang was taking shelter from a hurricane in a cave, while Zuko was determined to head straight into it to capture Aang.
Happens several times on Arthur.
An episode of The Weekenders had Tino's "Ultimate Weekend" ruined, partially because it was raining.
The Donald Duck cartoon "Donald's Off Day", in which Don's golfing outing is rained out. In fact, everytime the rain stops, it starts again the moment Donald steps out the door. He spends the day inside, while his nephews play pranks on him.
Played with in Adventure Time, where the fearless Finn and Jake are accosted not by water, but by a rain of daggers. When they attempt to use their imaginations to pass the time, it turns out that Jake's is almost deadlier than the rain!
The My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic episode "Look Before You Sleep" has Applejack and Rarity seeking refuge in Twilight Sparkle's home.
One episode of Tiny Toon Adventures features a series of shorts about what to do during a rainy day.
In "Doug's Comic Collaboration, Doug and Skeeter decide to write a comicbook instead of reading all the same old ones again. The weatherman who said it was going to be sunny is the villain. The two eventually argue about how to proceed with Doug noting the God Mode Sue powers of Silver Skeeter and Skeeter disliking the idea of having the heroes go to the library.

Real Life

This sentiment is lost on countries that exist in the path of the Monsoon. Rains are eagerly anticipated by most, if it doesn't rain entire agriculture-based economies can go down the drain.