there is VS. has
 

Today has rain.
There is rain today.

Which one is correct?

Re: there is VS. has
 

Today has rain.
Incorrect - did you mean "It has rained today?" - for example if you're talking to a friend from another country on Skype or chat, the conversation might be :

A : What's the weather like where you are?
B : Well, it's rained today, but it's fine now.



There is rain today.
Sounds strange. You might say :

It's raining today/at the moment
or
There'll probably be rain later today
or
We'll probably have/get some rain later today.

Re: there is VS. has
 

Rain can be either a noun or a verb. The grammar of a sentence depends on which way you use the word.
These are correct in American English:
There is rain today.
It's raining today. (present continuous)

Re: there is VS. has
 

"There is rain today." sounds wrong to me. I'd say "It's going to rain today."

A: This afternoon's game was canceled.
B: It's raining. (not *There is rain today.)

A: I have to get out and mow the lawn now.
B: Why?
A: It's going to rain today. (not *There is rain today.)

bread_baker - can you give me a context where you'd use *There is rain today.

Re: there is VS. has
 

OK I have understood now. I think "It is raining" or "It is rained" both sound better eventhough I don't know what "it" refers to.

Re: there is VS. has
 

i thought of some ideas but they need a little more:

There's some rain in the forecast later today.
There's some rain on the way this afternoon.

Re: there is VS. has
 

Be careful - it is rained is not correct. In the example

A : What's the weather like where you are?
B : Well, it's rained today, but it's fine now.

it's rained = it has rained.

"it" here doesn't mean anything. Expressions like : It's raining... It seems ... It's important that ... are called "empty it" constructions. It is empty of meaning and just serves as a grammatical subject. In English verbs must have a subject (grammatically) and so when there really isn't one (in terms of meaning) "it" is used.

Re: there is VS. has
 

Mark - I fed it into a concordancer and got :

in spring when there is more chance of rain ...
If during the day there is rain, cloud, wind and sun, then there will be much ...
If there is rain and snow, and it is icy, the harvest will be ...
... up as drainage channels when there is heavy rain, so the soil is carried away to the ditches,
... countries, where there is more sun and little rain, irrigation is the norm.
But there is no shortage of rain in the tropics.
If there is fairly regular rain and heavy dews watering is not necessary.
unless there is heavy rain this weekend,
another month before there is any substantial rain.
Although there is likely to be some rain and showers, it doesn't look like it is going ...
... if there is rain this week ..
.... frozen or anytime there--there is a lot of rain, they are going

It's interesting how, as in the examples you thought of, it seems that there are almost always intervening words between "there is" and "rain". And also how it occurs almost exclusively in a subordinate clause introduced by when/if/unless/although etc.

Re: there is VS. has
 

As Susan pointed out, rain can be used as a noun. I've heard it used this way in Californian weather reports. Examples: Right now there is heavy rain in the mountains. Rain is forecast for tonight (the forecast is now, therefore the present tense is used).

Re: there is VS. has
 

No, no, only the first one is correct. It is raining (when saying the rain is still going on as of the moment.) The second one -- It is rained -- is wrong. Instead you say "It was raining" when you mean that the rain already stopped.