Wrong type of rain?

My DH has been taking some early morning exercise lately (him being a morning person), consisting of jogging around the tennis court in the semi-darkness. Yesterday during the course of this activity he felt a few drops of rain on his head and headed back to the room before he got too wet. Then he noticed that the ground wasnt even wet, the rain had evaporated before even reaching the ground! What's the point of that then? Does that even count as rain?
Today started cool and cloudy and then it rained. Proper rain this time, the wet kind. Didn't last long though and within minutes the ground was dry again, leaving no evidence of precipitation whatsoever within the compound. The market however, was a different story. As I wandered around selecting my salad ingredients I tried to avoid several puddles (of the wet variety) failing miserably just as I spotted the cucumber. Nursing one soggy, muddy sandal, (and a cucumber)  I squelched my way over to the tomatoes and then headed home. Said sandal is now drying in the hot afternoon sun on my patio........I don't fancy salad now......