Weather Riddles

Press the button for one riddle about wind, rain or fog, then tap Show answer.

  1. When is a police officer like a rainbow?
All 21

How it works

These weather riddles are 21 old riddles about wind, storms, rain, fog, dew and umbrellas. Each answer stays hidden until you tap Show answer, so everyone gets a guess first.

Read the full guide

Wind, rain and word play

Wind and storms has 11 riddles, from the first whistler to the weathercock that is in season all year. Rain, fog and dew has 11 more. Word play marks the 14 whose answer turns on a sound, such as the clouds that hold the rains (reins).

Where they come from

Each riddle is in an old riddle book, free to read at Project Gutenberg and named under the full list. We told it again in plain words, kept the book's answer, and explained old words such as dripping, the fat left from a roast.

Tips
  • On a rainy day indoors, set the count to 3 and let each person read one riddle to the others.

Questions and answers

What is a good weather riddle for kids?

"When does the rain seem to love reading? When it is pouring over a book stall." It needs only one double meaning, pouring. The Wind and storms chip has more that young readers get quickly, such as the wind that cuts like a woodchopper.

Are snow and ice riddles here?

No. Snow, ice, frost and skates are on the winter riddles page, and the rainbow, lightning and the wind that casts no shadow are on the main riddle page. No riddle appears on two pages.

What does the weathercock riddle mean?

A weathercock sits on a spire, and its pointer is called a vane. "It is vane to a-spire" sounds like "it is vain to aspire", an old saying that it is foolish to want too much. The brackets in each answer give the hidden word.

All 21 riddles

Wind and storms 11

  • What color are the wind and the waves in a storm? The wind blew (blue) and the waves rose.
  • What is the wind like in a storm? Like to blow your hat off. Like to here means likely to.
  • What makes the waves so wild? The wind blows them up.
  • What moral does a weathercock teach? It is vane (vain) to a-spire.
  • When is a police officer like a rainbow? When they only turn up after the storm is over.
  • When is the wind like a shop that sells paper and pens? When it is stationary (stationery).
  • When is the wind like someone chopping wood? When it cuts.
  • Which bird is in season all year round? The weathercock.
  • Who was the first whistler, and which tune did it whistle? The wind. It whistled Over the Hills and Far Away.
  • Why does lightning turn milk sour? It doesn't know how to conduct itself.
  • Why does the east wind never blow straight? It blows so bleak (oblique).

Rain, fog and dew 10

  • In a month of rain, what must an umbrella always do? Put up or shut up.
  • What harm does the letter B do to sunshine? It makes light blight.
  • What is the difference between fog and a falling star? One is a mist on earth; the other is missed in the sky.
  • When does the rain seem to love reading? When it is pouring over a book stall.
  • When is a person like frozen rain? When they are hale (hail) and hearty.
  • When is an umbrella like cooking fat? When it is dripping. Dripping is fat left from roast meat.
  • Which is the queen of the roses, and why? The rose on a watering can. It rains (reigns) over them all.
  • Why are birds sad in the morning? Their little bills are all over dew (overdue).
  • Why are clouds like people driving a horse and cart? They hold the rains (reins).
  • Why is an old lost umbrella as good as new when you find it? It has been re-covered.
How this list was compiled

Traditional riddles found in 5 public domain books on Project Gutenberg: The Handbook of Conundrums (Edith B. Ordway, 1915) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32898; How to Solve Conundrums (1900) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44099; Conundrums, Riddles and Puzzles (Dean Rivers, 1903) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52598; The Santa Claus' Book of Games and Puzzles (1864) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54508; Nuts to Crack (1895) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69528. Book texts fetched from https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/<id>/pg<id>.txt on 2026-09-24, and a script found the key words of every riddle and answer in one passage of its cited book (the line number is kept in x.line). Every riddle and answer was then told again in plain words for this page. Every answer is wind, rain, fog, dew, hail, a storm, a weathercock or an umbrella. None is on this site's riddle-generator page (which already has the rainbow, lightning and the wind that makes no shadow) or on another page of the riddles set. Licence: public domain sources (Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/permission.html); the wording of each riddle and answer is own work