I can only try to explain why I enjoy them. They are Mother Nature at her best - or worst. The electricity in the air as the atmosphere charges up, the roiling of the clouds, the smell of the rain, the power of the lightning and thunder - all of that energizes me. The air after a storm, damp but usually cool, is refreshing.
When storms spark up I do immediately make sure the dehumidifier is on in the basement, unplug anything unnecessary, and double check the flashlights. I love violent weather, but I’m not stupid.
An extra positive to loving weather events is that it’s given TheKid direction. Is it wrong that I am proud that she wants to get her degree in Meteorology and become a storm chaser?
I’ve lived in California most of my life and we rarely get violent thunderstorms. I don’t mind them too much if I’m inside, but I don’t understand the mindset of people who like them. I mean, they’re dangerous, people can get killed. What’s to like about that?
I wasn’t being tongue-in-cheek. I’m past 40 and still love thunderstorms, though I don’t go out in them any more if I can avoid it, because of my growing awareness fo the inevitablity of my own death and the certainy of my susceptibility to injury.
I love to be out when the thunderstorm is still grumbling and sparking off in the distance - once it’s overhead, I go inside. We had all the windows on one side of our house blown out by a thunder/hail storm when I was a kid - I do respect the power. I also tend to unplug things once the storm is overhead - we have surge protectors on the computers, but a lightning strike is an Act of God.
We had an incredibly intense thunderstorm last summer - my husband and I were off doing something when it rolled in, and were in a place to sort of watch it roll in, which was very cool. Then we drove home in torrential rains, which was less cool, and continued watching the storm after we got home. I’m not normally scared by storms, but this one was non-stop lightning and very high winds - it put a little of the fear of Mother Nature in me. We’re in for a week of hot weather here - I imagine we’ll be having a good storm in the next week or so.
I love them, and find them exhilarating and refreshing. One of my sons does, too, which is a little surprising, considering his rather severe sensory issues and autism, but even when he was a wee tot, he’d be glued to the window during a good storm. (Yes, I always pried him away when I saw funnels forming!)
But I grew up in the Midwest, so I’m used to some pretty spectacular storms. Out East here, they’re usually less impressive.
It’s the sheet lightning, right? A coworker had friends from out west visit and hang out on break one day, and they were amazed that you don’t see the individual bolts very often here…unless something nearby is struck, of course :eek: It’s less impressive as far as we’re concerned.
I love them. Having grown up in California and later Arizona, stormy weather is just not that common, so monsoon season always fascinates me. I love storms at night, they help me sleep.
I also don’t have the healthy fear of being outside in a storm that I should. I don’t like being out in the rain, but if I have open cover like a garage or ramada I’ll stay outside for as long as the storm’s going. I also like driving in heavy rain, weirdly, especially when it’s sheeting down so hard I can barely see more than three feet in front of me, or when I’m in a depressed highway and the traffic has kicked up mist that fills the entire depression. I know it’s dangerous, but I just get exhilarated rather than scared.
Same here. Any sort of lightning storm is exceptionally rare, and those huge Midwestern-style thunderstorms are a once-in-a-lifetime event. So they’re really cool when they do happen, if only for the change of pace.
I also love listening to the howling Santa Ana winds late at night – so spooky and creepy.
One of my earliest memories is of being utterly terrified by a thunderstorm (at maybe age 3), but I’ve gotten over that and now love 'em. Actually, one of the best features of the area I live in (suburbs north of Houston) is the relatively frequent thunderstorms. I see spectacular cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud lightning all the time; earlier tonight, in fact.
I normally watch from inside, but in the Northeast, where I’m from, there have been several times where I could sit on someone’s front porch and watch a storm pass by from a distance at night, and those are perhaps my favorite of all.
I usually stay inside for storms. I love watching them, hopefully through an open door, but my house isn’t really conducive to open door storm watching.
Last month I and my husband got stuck outside in a pretty strong, though short storm at an outdoor festival. The wind knocked the festival tent over on the band, they had already stopped playing due to all the water running through the tent and getting their equipment wet. (No one was hurt, luckily) It got really intense after we ran from the tent, into the high winds and heavy rain. Then it all just sort of stopped, and we went home XD.
Last time I had that kind of rush was when a small storm came through while I was up in a tree when I was a kid. (I used to sit up there and daydream) It was fairly small tree and the best part was the wind swaying the tree.
Yeah, Katrina was pretty cool too: by the time she got here, she was still a Category 1. The only not cool thing was being out of power for three days. But we were very lucky it was only three days. Others lost so much more.
almost forgot to add, a storm came through during an outdoor concert we were at. ZZTop was playing and lightning was lighting up the whole sky. It was windy, but not much rain. Best light show ever, it seemed that everytime Gibbons or Hill would point over the crowd, there was flash of lightning across the sky, almost like they’d scripted it.
I didn’t respond, because my answer’s a bit complicated. I tolerate them when I’m in a big safe building, I’m white-knuckled whenever I’m in a car (if just because I’m afraid of getting stuck in standing water), and don’t mind them when they occur during my waking hours. I HATE them when I’m trying to sleep, though, because I startle easily, and loud thunder always wakes my ass up. I have to get to sleep before the storm starts, otherwise it won’t happen at all.
Funnily enough, I also don’t mind them as much when I’m caught outside in them. In fact, it’s rather exhilarating. Of course, it’s also not very safe, especially when there’s high wind.
Yep. Half the branches on our biggest oldest tree hang over my bedroom, so when the wind picks up to 40-50 mph, I move.
Like the other old farts here, I used to watch outside until the last minute, but now, if I see flashes instead of bolts, I’m inside, and well back from windows.
There’s no better summer entertainment than watching a storm approach and listening to the pounding rain, watching branches whip around in the wind.
