r/WeatherAnxiety

Price may get people’s attention, but weather plays a far bigger role than many travel brands give it credit for, i wanted to get peoples thoughts. Just how easy is it to actually find the perfect location based on weather? And does anyone even care?!

There is some bad storms headed in for the night and I am terrified. I am scared of the high winds. I am terrified of power outages. I am in a hotel on the top floor and there are already alerts issued. I hate thisssss

Would it be weird to make a gofundme (or just generally crowdfund) to raise money to get a storm shelter installed?

For context, I live in tornado alley. My birthday is coming up and I think I’d prefer help with achieving that goal more than any gift I can come up with. I can’t find any programs that would offset costs significantly that are guaranteed. My state program for storm shelters is lottery style for a partial rebate.

I just have PTSD + chronic illness and 3 big dogs and a cat that I worry about immensely during storm season. Plus my mom lives alone nearby. I can’t even express the peace of mind that having a home shelter would provide. Just wondering if that’s an odd thing to crowdfund for!

EDIT: the crowdfunding would be primarily through my friends and fam, like my personal network as a birthday ask rather than asking the general public, just to clarify!

I’d saw the 15% day 5 long before today. I’ve been repeatedly praying ever since that I’d end up just on the edge of a slight or a mdt like i usually do, and whaddya know I’m nearly smack in the middle of the mdt. Weather is so unpredictable and I lose sleep every single time I’m in a risk area above a marginal.

Just gonna chug tea today and hope for the best

I have an upcoming flight 5/4/26 from Paris to Miami.
I have been checking forecast for the turbulence and it just seems very bad.

I really need some assistance with this im very nervous and worried in general.

As Said in the title, I'm in the middle of the enhanced 3/5 orange zone for severe weather tomorrow. I'm scared out of my mind and afraid for my life. All I could do in a bad situation is hide in the closet but I'm scared crazy. My local meteorologist said there could be a few strong tornadoes tomorrow and I'm genuinely worried tomorrow may be my last day alive. I have severe anxiety outside of weather and this makes me feel worse...

I don't know what to say or do 😭😭. I don't live in a mobile home so I'm fine there, but I can't help but worry. I've been where there are violent tornadoes before and honestly blocked it out of my memory, and I'm so terrified of what may come tomorrow...

Hey everyone,

I’m currently working on a project, and I’m in a program to help me. As homework, I need to do 2–3 short customer discovery conversations (like 10-15 minutes each, can be voice notes, text, or a quick call— whatever’s easiest). I’m looking to better understand how people experience storms, what helps or makes it worse, and what they wish existed.

Don’t worry, I won’t pitch anything unless you specifically ask. This is genuinely for research/insights. I’ll also keep everything anonymous unless you say otherwise.

If you’re open to chatting briefly, comment here or DM me. Bonus if you’re in the Southeast or Tornado Alley, but anyone is welcome.

Thanks so much in advance.

Hey guys, so I don’t know if anyone else struggles with this, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask. I live in the Midwest, and we get a handful of bad storms a year. I know it’s important to stay aware of the weather, so I have access to multiple different alerts, I know my safe space, and I have a plan of what to do if I get a tornado warning or severe storm warning.

I never used to have anxiety over the weather, until last year. I’ve lived in the same house my whole life, I’ve been in some pretty bad storms. A few years ago, I remember going outside after my family had sheltered in our safe space. There was a ginormous tree right in front of my neighbours house. So it’s not like I’ve never been around this weather before.

Last year we had two really bad storms in particular. Before these, I’ve never been so paralysed in fear and anxiety due to the weather. The first storm, there was a tornado in our town, but it was so minuscule that there weren’t any crazy damages. I was thankful that it wasn’t worse. But then, we had a really scary storm situation about two months later. And I think the circumstances of this storm and thinking about the “what ifs,” is what really caused me to become so scared of storms. Now, even if there’s just your typical thunderstorm, I get so scared to the point of shaking.

So let me explain. It was in the middle of the day, and my mom and I went into our safe space. We can never convince our dad to come with us. No matter what type of warning we get, he will not come inside or come to a safe space when it’s storming. I got an alert on my phone saying something along the lines of “tornado warning, complete destruction possible, get to shelter now or there’s the possibility of death.” Apparently there was some sort of monster tornado just on the outskirts of our town. THANKFULLY, it lifted RIGHT before it was going to enter our town. But for the 30 minutes where I had no idea what was going to happen? I texted my sister, she wasn’t home. She was at a party, I don’t even know if she ever took shelter. I texted my friends to make sure they were all okay. I called my dad, sobbing and BEGGING for him to come inside. I was telling him “it says if you don’t come inside, you might die.” He still didn’t come inside! He said “oh if it gets really bad I’ll run inside.” Of course, that’s not possible, with how fast tornadoes can move. I can’t believe that even after I called him, literally sobbing (I barely cry, too), begging him to come inside because I was afraid for his life, that he still didn’t even come inside. And my cats were all scattered around the house, we have a lot of cats and sometimes we’re able to wrangle them all into the safe space, but other times it’s too difficult to get them all to cooperate and get to the same area.

So, thank god that tornado lifted. Otherwise I don’t know what would happen. But ever since then, I’ve been so afraid of the weather, that it’s seriously harmed my mental health. I’ve been going to the therapist for years now, and I’ve never had a fear like this before in my life. I’ve never been so scared of something to the point where I get paralysed in anxiety and fear, and just immediately start to sob.

And to “cope” with this, I’ve developed a problem. I hyper obsess over the weather, to the point where any time there’s a “severe storm watch” or “tornado watch” over my area, my eyes are glued on my phone at all hours, and I don’t get anything done for the entire day. It doesn’t feel good, it doesn’t seem healthy, but I honestly don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to stop obsessively looking at my radar app, and I even sometimes refresh over and over again to see updates.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can stay aware enough, but not TOO aware to the point where I’m trapping myself in this endless cycle of checking the weather? Like I’m not joking, the last time there was severe weather in my area, I was on my phone refreshing from like 2 pm to 2 am. It’s not healthy, but I can’t get myself to stop. It’s almost like doomscrolling but on a different scale.

It almost feels like a compulsion that I have? I don’t even know, I hope I explained it well enough. I want to be aware and know what risk level my area is in, but I also don’t want to trap myself in that state again. The day after I was glued to my screen for 12 hours, I just felt awful about myself. I beat myself up over it, because it feels so stupid. I can just turn my phone off, I don’t have to be on the app. But when I turn my phone off, I’m still anxious because I feel like I’m not “being aware and alert enough.” That day I was on my phone for so long, we actually did end up having a tornado warning, but there wasn’t an actual tornado. Everything ended up being fine, and I felt like an idiot because I wasted my entire day refreshing an app.

I hope I explained everything well enough, I was just wondering if any one struggled with the same thing and if they could offer me some ways to make sure I’m staying aware, but not obsessing to the point where I’m hurting myself. The level of obsessed I’ve become does not feel healthy, and I feel like my anxiety over the weather has only gotten worse over time. I think that storm really triggered something within me, and I’ve been struggling a lot the past few months.

I think a part of it is also me being afraid of the unknown. It’s always something I’ve struggled with and been afraid of, not knowing what’s coming next and not being able to predict it. It’s gotten so bad, that at certain points I would avoid leaving the house, because I couldn’t guarantee how my day would turn out if I did.

Sorry for the tangent, I just wanted to put in as much information as possible so my predicament could be fully understood. I hope it makes sense, because for a while I didn’t even know why I all of a sudden became so afraid of the weather. But now I understand, it’s because of that one time. If the tornado did hit my town, it’s possible my dad and sister could’ve died, and I don’t even know what would’ve happened to my pets. And that idea really scares me. It’s also being afraid of the unknown, that tomorrow there could be a terrible storm that changes my whole life. But that’s not even the point, I don’t know how to find the balance between being weather alert and aware, or hyper obsessing over the weather to the point where I don’t even take breaks to eat or sleep.

It’s just really, really been impacting me recently, and this is honestly my last resort because I haven’t been able to find a way to help myself. I wanted to reach out to people who maybe have been through the same thing, who could throw out some ideas of how to cope with it. Thanks, and I hope my post makes sense.