Il pleut des cordes

If you prefer, it's pouring down, it's raining cats and dogs, it's bucketing down, it's chucking it down. English is not the only language to know how to describe heavy rain colourfully.
1. Argentina: "It's raining dung head-first."
2. China Hong Kong: "Dog poo is falling."
3. Denmark: "It's raining cobbler boys," or "raining shoemakers' apprentices."
4. France: "It's raining like a pissing cow."
5. Faroe Islands: "It's raining pilot whales."
6. Finland: "It's raining like Esther sucks," which can be used for both rain and snow.
7. Germany: "It's raining puppies."
8. Greece: "It's raining chair legs."
9. Ireland: "It's throwing cobblers' knives."
10. The Netherlands: "It's raining old women," and "It's raining pipestems."
11. Norway: "It's raining troll women," or "It's raining witches."
12. Poland, France, Romania: "It's raining frogs."
13. Portugal, Brazil, and other Portuguese-speaking countries: "It's raining pocketknives," and "It's raining frogs' beards."
14. Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia: "The rain kills the mice."
15. Slovakia, Czech Republic: "Tractors are falling."
16. South Africa and Namibia: "It's raining old women with clubs."

You know it is bad when the locals start moaning about it. This has been going on all of July, sunshine for a short while and then torrential rain in the afternoon. At least I got my coffee in the square in the sunshine with friends before it closed in. The walkers were up Canigou today and I feel for them. They may not have completed as it would have become dangerous. They used to walk with tomorrow's runners but were given their own day for reasons of safety. I just hope the weather improves for tomorrow and the big race is not called off. Several hundred competitors will have come from all over Europe.