“There Will Come Soft Rains” is a short story by science fiction author Ray Bradbury which was first published in the May 6, 1950 issue of Collier’s. Later that same year the story was included in Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950).

The story portrays a scene of obliteration, in which the human race has been destroyed by a nuclear war. The fear of the devastating effects of nuclear force was typical of the Cold War era. The world was still recovering from the effects of World War II and events, such as the dropping of atomic bombs in Japan, were fresh in the minds of citizens throughout the world. In 1945, the United States released a nuclear bomb over the city of Hiroshima that destroyed nearly everything in the city. Three days later, Nagasaki was also bombed. Tens of thousands of people died as a direct result of the bombings, a quarter of a million more perished of radiation poisoning within 30 days. Even though the war ended shortly after these events, the fear of retaliation and the increasing focus on the development of nuclear weapons by many military powers world wide produced fear in the minds of people. After the war, tension increased between the two major military powers of the time, the U.S.S.R. and its satellite states, and NATO including the United States, culminating in the Cold War. This was a time of uncertainty, and the possibility of nuclear war was a daily fear.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Will_Come_Soft_Rains_(short_story)