Qfyilyi

What would be necessary in order for bubbles to rain down from the sky, whether they are actually soap or something else? Would it even be possible?

Aside from a bunch of little kids (which would be awesome to be honest) would there be a natural phenomenon similar to this?

Raining bubbles is somewhat similar to sea foam. Both require the water (or similar substance) to be stretched and agitated in such a way in which to encircle and trap air. Simply put, our rain here on earth cannot take the form of bubbles because they are so dense and do not have forces placed upon them that would shape them into disks and eventually bubbles. By having very specific air patterns, such as multiple focused streams of air rising upwards from the ground, it is possible to have individual raindrops spread apart and become "injected" with air, forming them into bubbles.

However, air streams such as these do not occur naturally on earth, so you would have to create a reasoning for these air currents to exist in the first place, be it vents, or organisms, or what have you.

Unfortunately, this method is not likely to catch every single rain drop, so a rainstorm would likely contain a mixture of droplets and bubbles.

Let's assume for a moment that there are bacteria living in clouds. These have to feed on something, but nutrition in clouds is scarce. The chances of collection molecules with nutritial value increase with the surface area that can be used to collect them.

Sometime during the endless evolution some bacteria managed to excrete a substance that can trap gas and form a bubble. Adittionally, the bacteria excrete a gas as metabolic product which now is trapped inside the bubble, increasing the surface area that catches nutritional molecules.

Due to global warming and rare weather conditions that blow nutritious Sahara dust into those clouds, the bacteria reproduce faster than usual, weighting down their bubbles until they rain down to earth in a spectacle dazzling thousands of people.

One possible condition to have bubble rain would be a large differential pressure in one gas across the height of the atmosphere.

Let's say, for the sake of this question, that CO2 has a pressure of 1 bar above 6000 m height, and the usual value we are used to below that height, with the overall atmospheric pressure being 1 bar (let's ignore for the moment the change of pressure with height).

When the rain drop forms it will be saturated in CO2, but upon descending the excess gas will try to get out to accommodate for the different pressure. This will form an air pocket into the drop, generating at all the effects a bubble: a liquid shell around a pocket of gas.

Eucalyptus trees can form bubbles when it rains

Combine a eucalyptus grove with rain and a high wind that blows the bubbles away as soon as they form and you have a rain of bubbles somewhere down the line.

Video - Why do trees blow bubbles?
https://youtu.be/rZg64CobDeQ?t=29