Afternoon thunder

July 24.

Now, at 2 p. m., I hear again the loud thunder and see the dark cloud in the west. 

Some small and nearer clouds are floating past, white against the dark-blue distant one.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 24, 1854

See July 19, 1851("The wind rises more and more. The river and the pond are blacker than the threatening cloud in the south. The thunder mutters in the distance. The surface of the water is slightly rippled. ... The woods roar. Small white clouds [hurry] across the dark-blue ground of the storm . . .") see also November 12, 1852 (“From Fair Haven Hill, I see a very distant, long, low dark-blue cloud in the northwest horizon beyond the mountains, and against this I see, apparently, a narrow white cloud resting on every mountain and conforming exactly to its outline”)