Do you like storms and heavy winds?

Me too! There is an excitement to a gathering storm that is thrilling. And being safe in one’s house enables the enjoyment.

I did before home ownership. The past few years have been a nightmare. Flooding rains followed by power outages, which require me to run the generator (for days) in order to allow the sump pump to save my house, sub-zero temps followed by power outages and no fireplace or source of heat. Neighbors’ pipes just exploding and filling their houses with water. Power lines lying all over the street, trees and poles missing the house by inches, but crashing right through neighbors’ houses.

Storms were the good stuff when I was younger – even just before kids or responsibility. Now, it’s the stuff that stands in the way of career (I have to save x days per year of vacation to manage storms) and family.

I do. I love storms. I love the feeling of safety hearing the howling from inside the house where it can’t touch me.

I did, until Hurricane Irene put a tree through the roof of my first house which I had owned for less than a year. Insurance made things right, but the whole process was a real pain in the ass. I live in the woods filled with giant old trees. They’re beautiful, and a big reason I bought this house, but I get that nervous tingle in my balls every time a big storm comes through (which is often in VA).

Not at all, big winds & thunderstorms frighten the shite outta me.
Rain on its own though, minus the fork lightning & shit, that I quite like.

Me too. We are having a very windy day here today albeit sunny.

Large scale weather phenomena in general. I was in a huge storm while on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Those massive waves remind you how small you are and how one of those waves could kill you in an instant.

I love it! During heavy wind or thunderstorms I get up and get dressed. I want to be ready “just in case.” Then I figure “Since I’m up I might as well go outside and check on things.” The generator, the gas, windows, ... Yep. All good. Now what?

See that nut job walking at night in the rain. That’s me.

I’ve never experienced a storm that put me in immediate danger, so it’s easy to say yes. I wonder if I would still like storms if one razed my town and destroyed everything I owned.

@Blackberry‘s experience sounds interesting though, and eye opening, too.

@Blackberry I was reading some of Darwin’s writings recently, and he talked about storms at sea being a bit of a letdown, because when you’re in a storm on land, you have all the commotion caused by things being blown around – trees branches are waving, shutters are banging, and so on. But in the middle of the sea, there’s no reference point for the motion – you can’t see the effects of the wind on anything, except the waves.

Do you find that sort of experience familiar at all? Or anyone else who’s been in storms at sea?

Seeing rogue waves coming at your ass must be somewhat impressive, nay? XD

@Symbeline That’s what I thought, too.

I love storms. Back when I used to live by the ocean, there’d be one or two storms a season that were like no storms I’ve seen anywhere else. I should upload some of the pictures I took—things blowing everywhere and the sky was as black as night.

Yes. I. Do. My favorites are the ones rolling off the Pacific. To stand in the middle of the night on a 200-foot cliff with gail-force winds in my face, the ocean crashing on the rocks below and the redwoods screaming behind me—it’s the absolute Gothic madness of nature. It is bloody beautiful.

I love, love, love big, wild, windy storms and thunder and lightening and snow thunder is the best!
Sadly, my zone is in a serious drought and it’s been years since any significant storms have rolled through. We did have some torrential rains in Dec. thought we might be seeing the end of this abysmal drought and the correspondent horrific wild fires we have endured the last few summers, especially last year. Sadly, we are now firmly entrenched in brilliant sunshine and near 80 degree temps. the last few weeks.

April might bring some showers bu the weather gods are not smiling on California.
I am bitterly envious of all you east coasters and your wild storms this winter even though I know you are all experiencing the polar opposite and suffering from cabin fever and freezing temps. and sick of all the snow. Shit..if you could ship out about 10 feet of snow to the Sierras we’d be dancing in the streets here.

I don’t mind them as long as I don’t have to drive in them.

@dappled_leaves Yes, the waves, and the wind tearing off their tops screaming through the rigging. The reference point is the main mast and the bow, and as you rise and fall from the crest into the enclosing abyss of a 40-foot wave, decks awash, stomach in your throat, the water catches over your bow and twists the boat more obliquely at the next and you’re thown nearly horizontal on the rise to the next crest and see the peak of your mast just scrape the wall of the last… then you suddenly pop upright when you reach the top, and the bottom drops out again… add some thunder and lightening to that. I think either Darwin’s memory was tempered by his exciting scientific discoveries, or he just got lucky, or he was bloody hard to impress.

Yes, it’s funny because he did talk about the horrors of sea sickness – but he also seemed to show some delight in various aspects of exploration by sea.

I don’t think he was so much hard to impress as trying to write dispassionately, even though his affection for various parts of the journey are very clear. It does make it difficult to assess the depth of his impressions in a relative sense.

I also imagine that sailing through a storm in the 1830s was more risky then than it is now (not to say it’s not risky now). So, again – his comments were surprising. He does talk about being abovedeck in a storm, so it’s not like he’s describing it from a distance.

This winter was the first time I cherished being alone in the house through snow storms but I still would hate being alone through something like Sandy where the power went out.

Love ‘em when I’m tucked safe and sound in my bed.

BTW, I’m not entirely insane yet. I prefer my storms on land.

The initial response is ‘yes’, but experience through age has altered the willingness to to say that. I have always lived in an environment where presumably adequate shelter was available. Had I been in a situation where this wasn’t the case or was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I would either say ‘no’ or be dead.

@hominid Yeah, being a homeowner does put a different perspective on storms.

I like stormy weather but less than when I was younger. Now I worry about the slates on the roof.

Love them. My favourite kind of weather is the foggy, wet and windy type we call “Winter” in Germany.

@hominid Agreed. Being a homeowner has taken out a lot of the fun of a big storm.
To be a kid with no worries no concept of home insurance again.

Usually. Here in California, we don’t really get that kind of thing, so when it does happen (when I’m traveling somewhere else), I find it to be kind of exciting. People who have had to live with weather like that regularly might think I was being a bit callous though.

Yes, very much. I especially like going out in the woods when there’s heavy winds, leaning against the base of a leafless young tree, and looking straight up to watch it sway and crack against the other trees.

@janbb You know there are at least a half dozen folks here who would gladly open their homes to you if Sandy’s sister visited. You would not be alone. Really.
Put me on that list.

@LuckyGuy Thank you dear. I may take you up on that some day.

I can’t say that I loved the baseball sized hail that destroyed my roof and truck a couple of years ago.

This morning it was sunny and warm when I woke up. I showered and put on my b-ball clothes. It was lovely and I was going to the park for some early morning b-ball.

By the time I was ready to leave the sky was angry. Covered in clouds and massive apartment shaking lightning and thunder. So I ran around unplugging anything that wasn’t my computer.

Not a fan of storms.

I really like storms, not when they wreck the plants on my balcony though.

I like heavy winds with drizzle

I love storms. I used to live in a house with a balcony so I could sit and watch them in the distance (or closer), but now we can only experience them as they pass over us. I like to lie in bed and listen to the rain hammering on the roof and thunder crashing and see the flashes of lightning. Of course, I don’t want people to suffer harm or property damage, but as long as everyone’s safe, I love a good storm.

I only like wind on a hot day, but I do enjoy a good storm.

In short, no, I’m not a fan of storms in the least.