The town was lifeless, indicating that something would have to come along to revive the town. Which in that case would be the storm. We know that the storm overall changes the mood of the town already. I would recommend when working on this type of question to elimate the answers that don't make sense. You can get rid of the line "Oven- like heat", " welll nigh invisible", and etc. I personally had trouble on this question during the diagonistic because I'm a idiot. The answer that I think would most likely make the most sense would be "slience is profound". Because, this sentence indicates a type of shock. Specifically the effect that nature has on something. So I personally think that would be the answer. Then agian I am quite the master when it comes to overthinking things.
