How to Create a stormy rain scene in Photoshop

The universal solvent is back. It looms, floating in a condensed visible mass, then bursts from its vaporous state, streaking to the earth at teminal velocity. Those blurred droplets called rain are a pretty simple thing to create, it's just a couple of filters and you've got it. Bert takes it a few of steps further to create a whole stormy scene with rain, lightning and an ominous sky. Oh, and there's a pirate ship in there too.