Why is it raining cats and dogs?

Have you ever wondered where the phrase “it’s raining cats and dogs” came from? Well, experts aren’t totally sure of its origins, too...

In the 1651 collection of poems Olor Iscanus, – a collection of some selected poems, and translations formerly written by Mr. Henry Vaughan – a phrase comparable to "raining cats and dogs" was first mentioned. One year later, Richard Brome, an English dramatist, wrote in his comedy City Witt, "It shall rain dogs and polecats." (Polecats are like weasels and were common in England until the end of the 19th century.)

In 1738, Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, published a satire entitled, “Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation”. Swift's satire was likely the origin of the phrase's popularity, where one of the characters feared that it was going to “rain cats and dogs”. Other British authors have used less common words to describe the appearance of heavy rains, such as "it's pouring pitchforks" or "it's raining stair-rods." Swift's phrase, on the other hand, may have stuck in the public's consciousness.

Swift also wrote a poem titled "City Shower" (1710) about floods caused by heavy rains. The floods left animal corpses on the sidewalks, prompting residents to characterize the weather as "raining cats and dogs."