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Poll: Thunderstorms – love or hate?

After thunderstorms struck the capital this week and Auckland, Northland a number of other places overnight, we thought it would be a great time to get our readers’ opinions – do we love or hate them?

On average, more than a hundred bolts of lightning hit the earth every second – sounds like a lot – but the chances of being struck are less than one in 700,000.

So they’re a critical part of our ecology, but do we enjoy the thrill of counting “one mississippi…two mississippi” and working out how far away they are, or do we run for cover? Let us know in the poll below – and have your say in the comments too!

 

How do you feel about thunderstorms?

Comments

Guest on 23/09/2013 2:22am

Love ’em! In the family home I grew up in we too used to turn off the lights and watch the view of the lightning dancing across the city, scary but fascinating.

But I totally understand the fear as well – our normally fearsome dogs tremble and skulk when it’s thundering. And I must admit, that big storm 2 nights ago had me wondering what it was like to live in a war zone with bombs dropping – the rolling booms shook me awake several times, and I reckon the term ‘sky-quake’ perfectly described the bone and tummy rattling shocks each time they hit. They seemed to be stronger than I’d ever experienced before….

Great dose of nitrogen for the garden and farm, so long as the blasts don’t connect with us directly huh.

Guest on 22/09/2013 7:48pm

Love them – I don’t mind the rain, and I love the flashes and bangs, but its the gale force winds I really hate!

I remember when I lived in Wellington, we used to turn the lights off, open the curtains and watch the show – better than TV!

Guest on 22/09/2013 10:26am

auckland west : i loved it was so cool so many flashes and the thunder was amazing bring more loved it up most of the night to 4am didnt want too miss it is that tropical storm going to be big be safe people

Guest on 22/09/2013 9:55am

when i was young, i loved thunderstorms so much. i used to offer them cheese so they’d be my friend! lol

Guest on 24/09/2013 5:58pm

wtf “cheese”?

C Johnson on 22/09/2013 9:12am

I’m 50:50, but I will vote yes. Luv the sound of thunder but dislike severe T-storms. Our place has been hit twice, once via the phone lines and the 2nd time a far more severe direct hit. The first time, the Wgtn region took 500 hits to houses etc during a very nasty night. It was bloody disastrous, knocked out power and left a big trail of damage (must dig that newspaper cutting out). The 2nd time was fork lightning. The direct strike was so powerful that it blasted soot into the paint, right back into the wood and when we have a big earthquake, carbon still drops down the walls from the roof space. All the wiring was carbonised up there. Wave cloud storms can be truly evil things, especially when they rotate with a shelf or low wall cloud on the base.

sabrina on 22/09/2013 4:59am

hate them,they terrify me

Guest on 22/09/2013 4:57am

I used to love thunderstorms until I saw the Albany tornado that’s when the reality of large T-storms really came home to me. I realised how unpredictable they were and how easily they can turn very nasty,

cat on 22/09/2013 4:46am

Love them but only if I’m inside and don’t have to go anywhere!

Andrew on 22/09/2013 3:54am

That thunderstorm we had in Aucland around 3am Sunday was amazing! Extremely bright flashes of lighting and thunder that shook the house.
I love thunderstorms and wish they would occur in Auckland more often, but I’ll take what I can get.
There best at night 😉

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