First light reveals a bleak picture of cloud and sudden gusts of rain.

BBC: Nomadic Kyrgyzstan

On July 2, 2011, a cloud burst inundated Copenhagen with 6 inches of rain in less than three hours, flooding cellars, streets, and key roads.

FORBES: What Copenhagen Can Teach Cities About Adapting To Climate Change

Above, a curtain of glowering cloud was fat with the possibility of rain.

BBC: Echoes of an ancient land along Turkey's Abraham Path

The rain cloud nimbus (Latin for cloud), for instance, was a combination of them all.

FORBES: Head in the Clouds

From a cloud, of course, the obvious route back to earth is via rain.

ECONOMIST: Aerobiology

There was no moon, and under the low cloud cover a brisk unseasonable wind ruffled the old Norwegian maples that lined the street and dropped a fine rain of spring buds on my shoulders and in my hair.

NEWYORKER: Wakefield