storm clouds

storm clouds

1. Dark, ominous-looking clouds indicative of an impending storm. Hurry back, there are storm clouds on the horizon.
2. Figuratively, anything that suggests impending trouble. I'm worried that all these visits by upper management mean that storm clouds are hovering over our department. The storm clouds of social upheaval are gathering over that country.
See also: cloud, storm
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • come up a storm
  • storm is brewing
  • breed up a storm
  • lay to
  • lie to
  • storm
  • go down a storm
  • work up to
  • work up to (something)
  • swim toward
References in classic literature
Then all of a sudden, on Easter Monday, a warm wind sprang up, storm clouds swooped down, and for three days and three nights the warm, driving rain fell in streams.
Large drops of rain soon began to fall, and, as the storm clouds came sailing onward, others supplied the void they left behind and spread over all the sky.
Then thirteen hundred miles of desert solitudes; of limitless panoramas of bewildering perspective; of mimic cities, of pinnacled cathedrals, of massive fortresses, counterfeited in the eternal rocks and splendid with the crimson and gold of the setting sun; of dizzy altitudes among fog-wreathed peaks and never-melting snows, where thunders and lightnings and tempests warred magnificently at our feet and the storm clouds above swung their shredded banners in our very faces!
Then Robin Hood gathered his band together in a close rank, with Will Stutely in the midst, and thus they moved slowly away toward Sherwood, and were gone, as a storm cloud moves away from the spot where a tempest has swept the land.
It grew like a storm cloud until once more it darkened the sky.
Storm clouds rooted deep in Jupiter's atmosphere are affecting the planet's white zones and colorful belts, creating disturbances in their flow and even changing their color.
A new study found that storm clouds formed in Jupiter's atmosphere, which affected its white zones and belts.
Storm clouds gather over the famous Liverpool waterfront, above, as the ferry makes its way across the Mersey, shortly before a big storm was due to hit the city.
THE crowds have disa-pier-ed as storm clouds loom over blustery Brighton beach - leaving a lonely kite flyer to brave the elements.
Astronaut Christina Koch's photos, according to the National Hurrican Centre, show that Barry's storm clouds threaten parts of Louisiana and Mississippi with 10 to 20 inches of rain, with a few locations getting up to 25 inches.
He agreed with the general assessment among policymakers that economic risks are growing, but said he is not seeing "storm clouds." And he suggested most firms aren't seeing much impact from the global slowing.
Lightning is an electrical discharge caused by imbalances between storm clouds and the ground, or within the clouds themselves.
The sun reflects on flood water and stranded vehicles as it emerges after days of storm clouds and rain, in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence in Wilmington, North Calorina, U.S., September 17, 2018.
Storm clouds gathered above Lahore during the wee hours of the day and since then massive rainfall has been reported across the city and the adjoining areas.
Storm clouds over a Gormley iron man at high tide on Crosby Beach.