It always rains on your birthday. It rained the day you were born.

My mother tells me this every September. I grew up with this concept that it just rains on my birthday, no matter where I am. This feeling continued while living in DC.

This year, I wanted to see if there was any actual truth behind this feeling.

Since 2007, 8 out of 12 of my last birthdays have been rainy. However, only a single birthday before college was rainy, so I don’t know exactly where my mother got this idea of constant rain. The data doesn’t support her comment.

I think it’s one of those things where if there was rain in the forecast, or rain on one of the surrounding days, or rain on the day that I was having a birthday party, it got generalized into “it always rains on your birthday”.

I’m still going to believe it’s likely to rain on my birthday. It’s made me fond of rain, and I always bring an umbrella or some rain boots with me on September 29th.

Source: Weather Underground historical data for September 29th