cloudburst

/ˈklaʊdˌbɝst/

Etymology

From cloud + burst.

cloudburst means A sudden heavy rainstorm. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 77 out of 100.

Why this word is great

CLOUDBURST — [Noun] A sudden and violent downpour of rain. From the English words cloud and burst, with the image of a cloud breaking open. Unlike drizzle, which implies a penitential, prolonged mist, or shower, which suggests a temperate, predictable intermission, a cloudburst is a calamitous surrender of the atmosphere. It is the deafening roar on a tin roof that drowns out all conversation, the instantaneous transformation of a dusty path into a frothing, brown torrent, and the peculiar blindness of a landscape dissolving behind a liquid curtain—a brief, magnificent reminder that the sky is not a ceiling, but an ocean held back by a promise.

noun

A sudden heavy rainstorm.“[B]ut the sound . . . expressed an utter abandonment to grief; not the cloud-burst of some passing emotion, but the slow down-pour of a whole heaven of sorrow.”