[2] It is praised for its dramatic depiction of the threatening mood of blackening skies and eerily illuminated terrain prior to the storm itself.

Here, a fisherman sits by the shore watching the storm approach; there is a faint red bolt of lightning in the left part of the sky.

[5] Strazdes suggests that "Heade, by refusing to prettify his scenery by association, was attempting to inject into his artistic vision a serious, monumental simplicity it had not previously possessed.

The long horizon is an influence from Heade's contemporary, Frederic Edwin Church (with whom he shared a studio),[7] as in paintings such as Niagara.

[6] Numerous pentimenti suggest that Heade altered the composition over time; for example, the hills on the horizon were originally larger and more jagged.