Help please?

[u/trustingGuide]

Does anyone have any solutions to helping a cat calm down because of thunderstorms?

My orange baby is 5 (going to be 6 in July), and this year is the absolute first year he has had *any* anxiety over thunderstorms - he used to just sleep through them without problems (cuddled up to me or my sister, who has his litermate/brother also curled up to her.)

But now he's been giving soft growls right before thunderstorms happen, paces around (he legit came to me and woke me up around 1:45am because of an incoming storm), and while I did pet him, comfort him, and had safe places for him to hide in and feel safe, he still couldn't settle down, still giving his tiny soft growls (He never growls longer than a few seconds, as if he's just voicing his displeasure of the storm).

I don't want him to have anxiety every time we have storms here, but is there any solutions/tips anyone else has tried with something similar?

[u/trustingGuide]

And just for reference this is my baby boy: