cloudburst

noun

1. 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.”

   “A cloudburst in the China Creek district followed by continued heavy rains was responsible for the increased water.”

   “In Uniontown, Pa., John Walchesky & family rushed from their house when lightning set it afire, rushed in again when a cloudburst put out the blaze.”

   “[H]e walked across the lawn, wet from a fleeting late-afternoon cloudburst, the first rain in a month.”