Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Words for rain: Raining cats and dogs. Two rather more colourful expressions which I quite like are 'it's raining stair-rods' and 'it's raining pitch-forks'. It is difficult to see where the business part of a pitch-fork comes into play, unless it describes the angle at which heavy driving rain bounces back from a hard surface.