That Rainy Night in Tobago

A rainy night in Tobago, up in the thick green tropics of Mount St George, wasn’t quite the soothing experience I imagined it would be.

There’s a noticeable trend for metal roofs in Tobago, roofs that have that crinkle corrugated effect – so when the rain pelts down at night, you know about it.

A dramatic awakening

Not even the deepest sleeper could have slept through the roar of raindrops against that metal roof in the middle of the night.

A spray of bullets in a war zone, or stones being dropped from above? No, just a rainy night!

Tropical downpours are not known for being mediocre, oh no – they’re forceful, loud and dramatic but this roof made it doubly dramatic.

Confused and on high alert for a few seconds, I shoot up from my pillow before realising its just ‘crazy’ raining outside.

It certainly caught me off guard since this was the first rainy night during my stay.

I climb out of bed and wander over to window – peeping out to confirm what I’m hearing.

Outside is pitch black, and the back of the house is surrounded by thick forest, tall trees packed tightly together, deep and leafy – there’s nothing to see in the dead of night.

Up on a mountain slope, surrounded by thick forest meant we probably got more rain where we were, than those sleeping further down the mountain at sea level.

Zillions of raindrops drill down on that metal roof, and buckets of water are being poured down past the bedroom window without any let up; that’s what it sounded like.

Rain is thought to create a sound similar to ‘white noise’ producing a calming effect; this might well be true when it’s not hitting a metal roof from a great height, dragging you out of your sleep!!

The plants were probably happy about it though!!

13 thoughts on “That Rainy Night in Tobago”

  1. Matt Mason – Cornwall, England – Matt Mason aka MG Mason was a writer from Southwest England. He wrote on a broad range of topics and loved mixing genres, particularly horror, sci-fi and historical fiction, and created the world of Salmonweird - a cosy-crime murder mystery series featuring ghosts. Matt also wrote about his experiences of being part of the asexuality spectrum - you can find these works over on The Grey Rainbow. Matt sadly passed away in November 2025, following a late diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, at the age of 50. His works remain available to buy across a range of platforms.
    MG Mason Creative says:

    Rain is thought to create a sound similar to ‘white noise’ producing a calming effect; this might well be true when it’s not hitting a metal roof from a great height, dragging you out of your sleep!!

    It does for me! Heavy rain tends to help me sleep but as you noted, I doubt that would be true on a corrugated metal roof.

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