Read this short text: The rain has gone way beyond cats and dogs and is now coming down in elephants and hippopotamuses. What is the figurative language in this sentence suggesting?

It is suggesting that the rain is coming down very heavily. The rain is a deluge, soaking everything with large, heavy, water-filled droplets quickly falling. The is based off the original idiom "It's raining cats and dogs" to indicate that it is pouring rain. It takes the hyperbole one step farther to add heavier and larger animals to show the amount of rainfall.