From Word-A-Day:
petrichor (PET-ri-kuhr) noun
The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell.
[From petro- (rock), from Greek petros (stone) + ichor (the fluid that is
supposed to flow in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology). Coined by
researchers I.J. Bear and R.G. Thomas.]
"Petrichor, the name for the smell of rain on dry ground, is from oils
given off by vegetation, absorbed onto neighboring surfaces, and
released into the air after a first rain."
Matthew Bettelheim; Nature's Laboratory; Shasta Parent (Mt Shasta,
California); Jan 2002.
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That's a good word. It rained slightly Friday night last week and as the five of us stirred and got outside, the whole world smelled wonderful--perhaps especially because the rain released any leftover scent from two seasons of dried catmint blossoms on the ground.
RDC2, I am sorry to say, opined that it stank. He wouldn't use the toilet in the basement because it smelled, he said; it might, though of basement not of sewage I hope. The other four of us mocked his finding the after-rain smell offensive.