black as thunder vs coal black

black as thunder

adj
  • Very black (especially of a mood, a frown, etc.). 

coal black

adj
  • Of an intensely black colour, like that of coal. 

noun
  • A black colour, like that of coal; charcoal. 

How often have the words black as thunder and coal black occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )