During his last years, Leonardo’s interest in the effect of weather on the landscape developed into a fascination. Man’s impotence in the face of the relentless and ultimately destructive powers of nature became something of an obsession. He wrote fables and prophecies about it and composed vivid literary and visual descriptions of violent storms.

In this drawing, which is one of a series on the theme of The Deluge, Leonardo explores the power of nature with great imagination. In the bottom right-hand corner, horsemen encounter a hurricane and are blown off their feet and forced to the ground. Beyond them are trees uprooted and bent to the ground by the wind. Above, rain pours down from a gigantic water spout and in the clouds storm gods drive the forces of wind, lending a mythical flavour to the drawing.

While Leonardo does not appear to have painted a storm himself, he gave careful and detailed recommendations to painters regarding how to represent the subject.

In Leonardo's words
…to depict this tempest well, first you will make the clouds, broken in pieces, to line up along the course of the wind, accompanied by the sandy dust lifted from the marine shores, and branches and leaves, lifted by the power of the fury of the wind and scattered through the air…and the trees and grasses, bent to the ground …Show the clouds being chased by the impetuous winds and sticking into the high tops of the mountains, turning them into enveloping back-eddies, like waves striking against the cliffs…