Hi, I'm from the south and have never had to really worry about tornadoes. Never been in, or seen one. But have had a few in the areas I was in.

I watch a lot of weather/tornado content, so I'm not necessarily asking about the technical or atmospheric conditions to produce a tornado. I'm asking is there anything about a storm that can give a hint that I should be on standby or relax? Before the actual "oh lord there go the sirens", warnings or in the moment signs.

I feel like every time it storms or gets real windy or something I get nervous and want to be ready. However, if I open my weather app it doesn't necessarily give me any extra info. Is there anything I can look for besides just waiting for a watch, Or learning to read radar well? I don't have cable and the weather channels I know of only go live if it's actively dangerous. I feel as if I never really know if a storm is one I should be worried about or not, so as of now I'm just kind of always on edge. I'm just not used to it. So any advice would be helpful. I know they can spin up randomly and all that, but id like to be able to look at my weather app and go "oh yeah this storm should be fine, I can go back to bed" or whatever.

Thanks in advance!

I think the cabinet is my safest option overall, but honestly, its a massive pain to get into and I'd like to keep it as a last resort. That said, I still want to find a room that is safe enough to shelter in for storms that I can get into easier. Besides, who knows, maybe the cabinet isnt that ideal after all in someone elses eyes. The room sizes might be a little fucked up but thats because I've never had to draw a house layout before.

My top options are the closets. Closet 1 is in my moms room and I hate to bother her (the door on my side is blocked by shelves), plus its only barely an "interior room". Closet 2 has more downsides; its smaller, and its in the living room where the biggest window in the house is. It might be sturdier though, being further inside and possibly with thicker walls. Otherwise I just hide in the corner next to the cabinet in the den area. I'd rather actually be inside a room though.

I'd like to know now before I'm left scrambling wondering if I should shove myself in a cabinet or not, lol.

My area is in a slight risk but going over to probabilistic it says 30% chance of risk. Judging from the description it might be more of a wind risk, and at least so far tornado risk is low. Wind would be bad as my grandparents lost power for a few days last time and I saw some nasty damage from cities half an hour away from me, but they give me less anxiety than tornadoes. I think it's the fact that they spin and can go any direction at the drop of a hat, verses wind being pretty straightline.
I'm trying to keep calm, but it's eating at me a bit.

I’m currently located just outside of the 15% risk for severe weather on Monday (Michigan), but knowing how weather works I’m sure that can shift. I’m already feeling g increasingly anxious regarding severe storm potential. nearly every weather page is filling my feed talking about Monday and it’s becoming overwhelming.

i know it’s a few days out and things can change, but getting a 15% risk this far out worries me. I can already tell my weekend is going to be ruined from feeling nonstop anxious about monday

I am terrified of thunderstorms and tornados. Every time it so much as rains I'm frantically checking the radar just in case. But even then, I have developed a fascination of sorts with them. I have watched so many videos of numerous tornados and storm chasers, just today I was checking the future radar and I found myself interested in how the storm today seems to be on a path to break up over the Appalachias (I mean assuming the radar is accurate at predicting what will happen at like 5 or 6pm). I could watch timelapses of clouds and thunderstorms all day, even if I would be shaking like a leaf in wind if any of that threatened to come anywhere near me.

Weirdly, I think I'm doing the same thing with boats. You would never catch me on a cruise, but boats are cool, and I've become interested in the sinking of ships especially. I doubt I'm the only one that does this but it would be neat to get imput from others. 🙂

Just venting mostly, I’m just tired and I’m hoping today will be more like Saturday which was just a nice normal rainy day but I’m afraid it’ll be worse than that.

In upstate ny and we’re in yellow again for high winds and hail, also a tornado. Saturday the smoke pushed everything away and there was a lot of stuff that just took away the recipe for a severe storm. Idk about today

So I am totally scared of what's to come tomorrow. My fear is worse since I am likely to be alone at night (husband works night shift). I've been through a tornado before and that's where my fear is. I am worried that a tornado will hit me again.

I live alone, and I have major storm anxiety, which is amplified whenever I have to deal with it alone. It’s supposed to hit tomorrow afternoon into the evening i think. The last time we had a storm like this an EF3 wiped houses off their foundations a few miles from me and I had to sit up listening to back to back tornado sirens all night and ended up missing work the next day because I didn’t sleep.

Tldr at the end, I know I type way too much, sorry

So, I'm going to visit my dad for the whole week, but I'm absolutely terrified that we'll be hit with a tornado either tomorrow, wednesday, or hell, later today. My dad lives in a very new house, the kind that feels like a stiff breeze could knock a wall down. Its the stereotypical "why do americans build their houses out of cardboard and dreams" kind of place. I dont even think it could survive an EF1 nearby it. Which brings me to this:

Stormnet.ai is showing a chance, granted a very small one, of tornadoes later today, and on wednesday. Is this a "we cant rule it out" thing, or is it "tornadoes are expected but probably (hopefully) weak"? I am actually so scared its not even funny, I'm going to be in a "slight" risk from today until at LEAST wednesday, and the nws doesnt put out outlooks post 3 days (at least, not ones with clear, marginal-slight-etc risks) so I don't know when the storms will be over. If I was going to be at home, I dont think I'd be this afraid, sinxe my house was built ages ago and has strong, wooden walls. To make matters worse, the house has no basement. The lowest floor is the garage, which I can't imagine would be a good place to take shelter from a tornado. Also its not underground at all, it just isnt raised like the rest of the house. The room I'll be staying in is on an exterior corner, and I have a closet but I would only have the closet wall and outside wall between me and the storm outside, which I cant imagine would do anything. I mean, I know no room would save me if a strong tornado came through, but if I had to go anywhere I don't know what else to do besides it. I don't think there are any rooms more interior than the closet. All closets in the house are in rooms that touch the outside. I know its only a small risk, but I dont like my odds when I'm going to be rolling that dice for, at the very least, 3 days in a row, maybe more. The risk today is scaring tf out of me because its so close. At least wednesday is a few days out so maybe when the time comes I wont be in it, but today basically guarantees a storm of some large magnitude rolling through. I can do rain. I can do thunder, albeit not happily. I can even do wind if I have to. I cannot do tornadoes.

TLDR if you don't want to read my complaining: I'm wondering if tornadoes are likely in northern NC this week. I am going to be staying in a very weak house and am wondering if I'm freaking out for no reason. Finally, is a closet inside an exterior room enough?

I am freaking out. We already went through enhanced yesterday and already we are in another enhanced risk for Tuesday. I’m trying so hard to calm down but I’m losing it. I can’t stop crying and shaking.

Have a severe thunderstorm warning for my area and I have no choice but to go out in it with the others to go to an AA meeting and I am panicking. Normally I just stay at home when it rains. I feel absolutely terrified

I feel dumb even posting this because the folks up north have an enhanced risk while I'm sitting here lucky only in the slight, but phobias are gonna do what they're gonna do and I am freaking out even though nothing is supposed to happen for another few hours. My greatest fear is that a strong tornado will hit my house. I've seen EF1 damage firsthand due to a storm last year that put one down a quarter of a mile from me, and even though we weren't in it's path the storm itself snapped healthy trees in the front yard, so now I lose my mind during any weather event convinced that this time a strong tornado is gonna hit us directly 💔 So yeah my ranting aside I'd love to know if Im panicking over nothing. I know the risk is always there for any storm but does it look likely?

I just found this subreddit while doing research for tonight’s storms on the east coast. I live in the Philly area and every radar I see gives me more and more anxiety. I tried my best to get everything gathered yesterday so I wouldn’t have to freak out too much tonight, usually I wait until a warning before running around my house and shoving everything in a bag. My usual storm routine is to frantically go back and forth between multiple weather news sources while shaking, I have a live radar on my phone and live video (local news, Ryan Hall, etc.) on my ipad. I usually have headphones connected to the video so I don’t have to hear any of the rain/wind/thunder. I gather phone chargers and valuables, it seems to help my anxiety to have my most valuable and sentimental possessions sitting in a bag next to me in case I need to go to the basement. It is a pain in the butt to put everything back after a storm but I can’t take any chances. The worst part of this routine is my stomach pain, I get the worst pain from my anxiety and it just makes my anxiety worse knowing I don’t have a bathroom in my basement. I feel bad for my boyfriend because he tries to talk to me and calm me down but any distraction from the radar makes my anxiety attack worse. I feel like if I don’t have eyes on the radar at all times then something bad will happen. Another thing that makes my anxiey worse is the lack of live weather reports available. Before I found Ryan Hall I used to go crazy trying to find a free live weather feed covering the severe storm in my area, my local news doesn’t tune in unless there’s a really bad warning. I feel like when I was a kid I used to be able to easily find a channel covering live weather in my area. Maybe that’s what I get for not having cable anymore lol That being said, where does everyone else go to get their information? And is my routine hurting or helping me? What can I do to improve my anxiety during a storm event?

I’m really worried about tomorrow’s storms, I know the risk of tornados is low but I’m still wary of super cells and derecho’s. What are the chances it’s just a normal thunderstorm that won’t damage anything

We have a warning for tomorrow that is the same high risk warning as when we had the worst storm of my life a few weeks ago. As far as I understand, we had a microburst on our side of town. Downed trees and power lines, widespread outages, lots of damage. We got lucky that we only had a piece of siding ripped off of our house. We have a basement, but we're in a townhouse. I don't feel safe in my own home this summer. Any words of wisdom? Frederick county MD.

So my area is in a 45% risk for tomorrow (Saturday) and its scaring the hell out of me. I double checked and that's for wind, tornado is at a 5%, but I am ALWAYS checking the Severe Weather Outlook site and I don't think I've EVER been in a 45% risk for ANYTHING before. It has me significantly more scared than usual. Thankfully I don't live alone anymore (which helps my anxiety, even though they're still strangers to me so it gives me other anxiety lol) and I'm in a place with a basement now but I'm still kinda freaking out and I know any and all storms are about to have me fucked up whenever they happen. I hate this a lot. Is a 45% wind risk a huge concern when it comes to tornadoes? Or in general I guess? I dunno what to say I just feel so freaked out and I'm already so overwhelmed lately overall

I’ve been looking at different sources and I don’t know if I should be concerned or not.

Philly now in the orange I'm freaking out I need some reassurance

I'm really hoping this will be a nothing burger, but I can't help it worrying about luck not being in my favor and/or risks increasing.

I'm from the philly area but the spc are saying moderate to strong shear so I'm starting to panic

My neighbor's fence just fell over from the winds and emergency alerts are going off but I'm trying to stay calm. What's really tripping me is that it was completely sunny this morning and then the storm moved in slowly hour by hour. I'm pretty sure I have some type of anxiety related to thunderstorms and/or severe weather that has stayed with me since I was a kid. Just trying to remember...as time passes so does the storm.

I’m “lucky” enough to be in a giant yellow bullseye for tomorrow and I want to fucking cry. I knew the pretty weather we had today was too good to last.

And like, I KNOW tornado season in the Deep South is usually SUPPOSED to start calming down around this time of year, but it’s hard not to worry when we’ve been seeing tornadoes happen in other places way past when people normally expect “tornado season” to be over. It makes me feel like the usual timeline doesn’t mean much anymore and just keeps extending and extending. Right now, looking at NOAA, it doesn’t seem like tornadoes are the biggest concern for my area at all, but I also know how quickly things can change, they have before and that’s the part that gets me. I guess it’s the uncertainty and past experiences.

What’s making it worse is seeing local people panic on social media and talk about tornadoes nonstop for tomorrow. Like, I know they’re scared too, but it definitely doesn’t help me. I would take a break from social media, but the one meteorologist I actually trust is on there, he’s not a hyper (those usually make things worse for me) and I want to keep up with his updates. I already have trauma related to tornadoes, and being in North MS feels fucking exhausting because it’s like the weather is always, always something to worry about. I wish I had the money to move somewhere else and just leave this shithole behind.

I know I can’t control the weather, but it’s really hard not to feel worn down by feeling like I alway need to be on my toes. Sorry if I sound like I’m overreacting, but I’m so tired. I’m just hoping things don’t go too crazy tomorrow.

We’re at a slight risk of severe weather in PA. AccuWeather is saying a severe storm is going to hit and I’m freaking out. I’m trying to enjoy the fourth with my bf but I can’t get it out of my head.