Raining pitchforks

A torrential downpour so fierce it's like pitchforks falling from the sky, stabbing the ground with relentless force-an absurdly violent rain.

From 19th-century America, possibly tied to farming-pitchforks, tools of toil, turned into a vivid rain image. A 1810 almanac uses 'raining pitchforks' for a gale, and by the 1840s, it was slang, as in a Twain 1876 tale. It reflects pioneer hyperbole and weather's harsh stakes, growing into a quirky idiom of nature's fury, less common but striking.