Freaking out during severe weather alerts.

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There's lightning storms circling our hill right now. I knew it was coming because I've had a low barometric pressure induced headache since last night and up until a few hours ago.

For more than half my life, the houses I've lived in have been at the highest point for miles. I've always enjoyed storms, however, I have to say it can seem too close at times (blinding balls of light, not chains) on our present hill. Where I grew up, the thunder would echo across the steel roof of the one story school directly across from my 2nd floor bedroom window, a sound which was simply glorious to me. Later on, I would park below a nearby suspension bridge over the harbor and watch lightning hit it.

We get thunder and lightning storms fairly often in the summer months, Noreasters and other snowstorms in the winter and the threat of hurricanes in the fall (most of which end up being tropical storms by the time they get here, but some, such as Juan in 2003, cause a lot of damage).

While I love thunder and lightning, I have no use for being buried under snow and ice. There's no fear, just annoyance, and perhaps a power outage, which leaves us without water, heat and electricity. Going for a day or more has happened, which means we have to worry about our pet snakes.

I hate hurricanes, not because I fear for my personal safety, but because the last big one tore my beloved 60 foot maple tree (and many others) from it's roots. Trees mean a lot to me and are a huge source of serenity. I get very attached to them, even the ones on a walking route. The fact that our house was also damaged didn't bother me. So "no thanks" to hurricanes!

Not that I want it to happen, but I've always wondered what that would feel like!

I always found them exciting and I actually like the sound of the Emergency Broadcast system.

I can understand that. I tend to think I'm safe as long as I stay inside my car and don't touch the metal parts. Who knows if it's really completely safe in a car. I've read cases where people have been injured from lightning while inside their vehicle but nobody has ever died that I'm aware of.

But if you're outside watching a tornado aren't you also at risk for being struck by lightning? Storms that generate tornadoes almost always have lightning in them as well don't they?

I just realized how insensitive I'm being here talking about how much I love storms when the OP is afraid of them and looking for support. I'm such an ass. Too lazy to start my own storm lover's topic.

Last edited by marshall on 06 Jun 2010, 10:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

lol. I posted this last night. They scare me but if I'm not experiencing it I don't care. Mt stepdad is the same way, he'd probably chase the storms if anyone would let him. Absolutely effing nuts.

Speaking of thunderstorms there was a REALLY LOUD one around 2:30 this afternoon here in the Washington DC area. I didn't even have to chase it in the car sice it came right to my apartment doorstep. The lightning bolts were pretty much continuous. I ran outside to look just before the rain shaft arrived and almost shat myself after hearing a couple really intense thunderclaps!

So yes, I am slightly effing nuts! And I'm having an aspie moment not being able to shut up about my special interest.

As far as I know, yes. But I don't recall seeing lightning when I've been looking at green skies and high winds. (I"ve never actually seen a funnel.) Also, my last time being out looking at a tornado was before getting hit by lightning so I might find myself skittish now and just not realize that I would be too skittish to watch the effects of a tornado any more.

But generally I have to *see* the lightning before I get scared and go find a safer place to be. So if I were watching a tornado and didn't see any lightning, I probably wouldn't even think about it.

It depends on the event. I was in a lightning survivors support group for a while and it made me realize how lucky I am. Some members had severe brain damage. One guy had no feet because the lightning had blown them off when it exited his body. One woman had scars all over her neck, ears, and fingers where the lightning had burned her through her jewelry. One guy had a huge personality change (probably due to brain damage) and lost his wife and children because of it. Only me and one other person appeared to have escaped relatively unscathed.

Lightning is strange and difficult to explain. It can kill one person and leave another unharmed. And it's unpredictable.

I was behaving stupidly, which is why I was struck. It had started to rain and I wanted to go play in it so I put on some clothes from the laundry basket and went to the park right behind my apartment building. At first I was playing on the swings! I'm so glad the lightning didn't hit then or I probably would be dead. Then I was running and dancing and twirling in an open field.

The next thing I knew, everything was brighter than bright and louder than loud. I don't know any other way to explain it. It was like being in an explosion. Then I couldn't see and couldn't hear but I could feel hands taking hold of me, picking me up off the ground, and leading me someplace. Then I didn't feel the rain on me anymore so I figured I was inside. All I could hear was a VERY loud sound that was like "UUOAUUOAUUOAUUOAUUOAUUOAUUOAUUOA" and all I could see was just a strange, glowing brightness. Someone helped me to sit down and I just sat there for a long time with that very loud sound and very bright light and nothing else. I didn't know what had happened, but I assumed I was permanently blind and deaf now. It was very upsetting.

Finally (the people who were with me told me it was over half an hour before I spoke) the sound started to dim and I started to see moving shapes beyond the brightness. When the sound had finally dimmed enough for me to hear, the first thing I heard was someone saying, "can you hear me? are you all right?" I could see that the shapes around me were people, but I couldn't have said if they were male or female, black or white yet.

I asked, "what happened?" and the people explained to me that I had been hit by lightning. One person said, "we were all at the bus stop over there and it started raining and there wasn't a shelter so we came over here to the park shelter (I was in one of those shelters with picnic tables, as it turned out.) We were watching you out there and wondering why anyone would want to be out in the rain on purpose and then the lightning hit you. So we brought you over here and some of us stayed with you but others had to go when the bus came."

Eventually my sight and hearing returned completely to normal and I went home. It only occured to me this moment as I was writing it out that no one called 911. Granted, it was in the days before everyone had cell phones, but there was a phone booth a block and a half away. Maybe no one thought of it since I wasn't bleeding and was able to walk to the shelter on my own, so long as someone was leading me. Maybe they were afraid they'd get hit by lightning, too. Maybe it just didn't occur to anyone.

Like I say, though, I was extremely lucky. Lots of people get killed, maimed, disfigured, or crippled by lightning. Though I guess if I were *really* lucky, I wouldn't have been struck in the first place.

Wow! Glad you're ok. Do you notice anything permenantly different about you afterwards?

Me, too. Thanks!



I've tried to figure, but I can't notice. But also the strike happened before I started to really organize the patterns of my existence (which only really came after my AS diagnosis) so there could easily be things I've missed.

When I was first diagnosed and still in quasi-denial about it, I was trying to find any other explanation than autism and for about a minute, I decided it was a misdiagnosis of the effects of the lightning strike (because many of the known effects of being struck by lightning are similar to asperger's traits) but then I remembered what I was like as a kid, looooooong before the lightning, and dismissed that potential explanation pretty quickly. Because I've always been like this.

Sparrowrose: I'm glad you're okay, too. That's quite the experience to have and then live to tell the tale, thanks for sharing.

It depends on the type of alert. I remember once there was a risk of tornadoes and I stayed awake all night with my camera waiting to record one (which never happened anyway). However when there was a tsunami alert I completely freaked out and grabbed as much canned food as I could and sat on the top of my house. I couldn't stop looking at the water. I don't mind thunderstorms, I just don't really want my house to be filled with water and all of my pets to drown.

When I was a kid I used to freak out whenever the power went out. Anything from simply curling into the fetal position and tightly closing my eyes to full on manic/panic attacks, failing my arms and running around the room. I still clinch up whenever it happens. Guess that's what I get for being AS and growing up in central Illinois.

Biggest weather we get where I live now is severe thunderstorms. Thunder and lightning is about the only thing that can make me manic these days. So whenever we get the ebs now, I just get a bit excited.

I LOVE severe weather alerts. Somehow I always have the mindset "the bad things won't happen to me" but I can watch from the safety of my house the severe weather as it plays out. I wish I have seen a tornado in my life but I haven't.

Living in NY, I'm used to weather warnings. (Nowhere near as bad as the lake effect one poster mentioned in Buffalo though.) The thing I freak out about the most is high winds, like 50+ mph winds. Those winds can shake my house, make me cold, and wake me up in the middle of the night all with one gust because it's so strong. And windy weather tends to make me feel crappy, so it's lose-lose.

I'm on the West coast, and we never ever get anything. We get warnings sometimes, but nothing ever comes of them.

I'm assuming you live in or near, ehem, Motown

One time, driving home through Fremont, we did see a funnel cloud almost touch down...it was pretty freaky, especially since we kept driving towards it to get a better shot of it (with a camera)

There's a severe thunderstorm warning right now. The sirens are blazing. I assume one is from a car, and the other from downtown.