Home » Printable Puzzles » It’s Coming Down

🌧 It’s Coming Down is a Hard crossword where every answer is a word for rain, or something close to it, and there’s no word bank to lean on. Fair warning: the clues borrow from both sides of the pond. A few sayings are British, a few are pure North American, and one or two are just plain old-fashioned. If you’ve spent time in both the UK and North America and you’ve collected a soggy vocabulary along the way, you may sail right through this one. But if you’ve only ever been rained on in one of those places, expect a few clues to leave you stumped until the crossing letters come to the rescue. Print it, or play online right in your browser. The answer key sits at the bottom — fold it backward along the dotted line before you start.

browse them all »

It’s Coming Down

Crossword · Puzzle No. 122ThePuzzleSolver.net

Hard

A Hard crossword with no word bank. Every answer is a word for rain, or close to it. The number after each clue is the answer’s length; one answer is two words, shown as (6,4).

Across

1 The sound of a leaky faucet (4)

3 Soak to the skin (6)

7 ___ in a teacup (fuss over nothing, across the pond) (5)

9 Waterlogged and heavy, like a lawn after a week of rain (6)

11 It sends the dog under the bed (12)

12 Sudden deluge, as if the sky popped (10)

14 What you’re caught in when it’s raining cats and dogs (8)

15 What Noah built his ark for (5)

17 Fine, soaking drizzle named for the Highlands (6,4)

18 Rain, snow or hail, to a forecaster (13)

		1		2	3	4					5
6
								7	8
			9
		10
11

	12
										13
14								15
							16
		17


	18

Down

1 Morning moisture that never actually fell (3)

2 What kids in rubber boots aim for (6)

4 Brainstorm, after losing its head? (9)

5 ___ in a teapot (big fuss over nothing) (7)

6 Rain with an icy edge (5)

8 Be packed, like a pond with fish, or rain buckets, as the Brits say (4)

10 Folksy name for rain hard enough to scour a ravine (11)

13 Seasonal wind that brings India’s wet season (7)

14 Like clothes that aren’t quite dry (4)

16 Rain that evaporates before it reaches the ground (5)

✂ fold backward along this line to hide the solution ✂

Solution hidden on screen — it prints automatically.

Solution

1A DRIP3A DRENCH7A STORM9A SODDEN11A THUNDERSTORM12A CLOUDBURST14A DOWNPOUR15A FLOOD17A SCOTCH MIST18A PRECIPITATION1D DEW2D PUDDLE4D RAINSTORM5D TEMPEST6D SLEET8D TEEM10D GULLYWASHER13D MONSOON14D DAMP16D VIRGA

How to Solve a Crossword With No Word Bank

On our Easy and Medium crosswords, a word bank tells you every answer up front. A Hard crossword takes that safety net away, so you have to come up with each answer from the clue alone. Here’s how to get a foothold:

Start with the fill-in-the-blanks. Clues with a blank, like “___ in a teapot,” are usually the quickest wins on any crossword. If you know the saying, the answer is right there.
Use the numbers. The number in brackets is the answer’s length. If you’re torn between two words, count the squares first. One answer here is two words, shown as (6,4), and gets written into the grid with no space.
Treat a question mark as a wink. A clue ending in “?” is playing with words, not defining them. Read it again and look for a pun or a hidden word.
Go after the long answers early. The 12- and 13-letter answers cross half the grid. Even a guess pencilled in lightly hands you letters for a dozen other words.
Lean on the crossings. If a clue uses a saying you’ve never heard, skip it and come back once two or three of its letters are filled in. That’s exactly how this puzzle was designed to be cracked.
Think about weather words you’ve heard, not just ones you use. Old-time farm talk, British weather reports and the evening forecast all have their own words for rain, and they’re all fair game here.

Want to brush up first? Our complete guide to solving crosswords covers clue types and fill strategy from the ground up.

About This Puzzle

It’s Coming Down is built entirely from words for rain, from the lightest morning dampness to a full-blown storm. It is Mr. Puzzle’s second Hard crossword, and the first one with no word bank at all. The clues mix plain definitions with sayings from both sides of the Atlantic: the British and North Americans describe the same small fuss with two different stormy expressions, and both of them are hiding in this grid.

A few of the answers are real weather terms that most people half-know. Forecasters have a name for rain that falls from a cloud but evaporates before it touches the ground, which you can sometimes spot as grey streaks hanging under a cloud on a dry day. Another answer is old Western farm talk for a downpour heavy enough to wash out a dry creek bed. If one of those turns out to be new to you, the crossing letters will get you there, and you’ll have a new word for the next rainy day.

Looking for more seasonal puzzles? Try the autumn crossword Fall Is Coming or the Halloween crossword Things That Go Bump. And if you want another Hard crossword, Computer Parts is waiting.

Puzzle Pack: Holidays, Seasons & Weather

It’s Coming Down

Across

Down

How to Solve a Crossword With No Word Bank

About This Puzzle

Or browse the full puzzle library...