The Drops of Rain vary in their size, perhaps from the 25th to the ¼ of
an inch in diameter. In parting from the clouds, they precipitate their
descent till the increasing resistance opposed by the air becomes equal
to their weight, when they continue to fall with uniform velocity. This
velocity is, therefore, in a certain ratio to the diameter of the
drops; hence thunder and other showers in which the drops are large
pour down faster than a drizzling rain. A drop of the 25th part of an
inch, in falling through the air, would, when it had arrived at its
uniform velocity, only acquire a celerity of 11½ feet per second; while
one of ¼ of an inch would equal a velocity of 33½ feet.--_Leslie._