How do you know there's going to be a thunderstorm?

Question

Smell in the air?

Prickle on the back of your neck?

Animals get skittery?

Answer 1

Static on the radio (AM bands).  Weather radar.

Answer 2

i always get head ache first

Answer 3

when you see lightning and hear thunder

Answer 4

By looking at the sky and knowing my location and time of the day.

If the visibility is good, it means that there is convection: the air rises because it is colder up there.

If cumulus clouds are developping, it means that there is humidity in the rising air.

If the cumulus climb to reach the upper troposphere and develop the typical ambolt shape when they reach temperature where clouds turn into ice droplets and the bottom is getting very dark, it means they are towering cumulonimbus.

If the time of day is the afternoon and the sun still heats the ground, then everything is in place to form a thunderstorm:

Convection (rising air)

Humidity (clouds)

Heat (sun)

Note that in mountainous regions, the uplifting of the air can also be orographic (by the shape of the terrain). Hot and humid air being lifted by a mountain is often ending in a local thunderstorm.

Answer 5

For me, it's a smell in the air, and a "feeling" as well (not very scientific, but that's the best definition I can give you); sometimes I get a mild sinus headache as well, doubtless due to the change in pressure.  I grew up in Tornado Alley in Texas, so I had LOTS of practice; I now live in Washington state where we get very few thunderstorms (and thankfully almost NEVER any tornadoes); just yesterday I realized there was going to be a storm long before most of the people around me did.

Answer 6

i start l*****g my finger

Answer 7

The brakes in my car start squeaking right before a storm. Probably the moisture or something.

Answer 8

The sight of it, the dewpoints are high (around say 50*f), the humidity is rising, winds are kicking in, thunder. The smell likely comes from rain evaporating before it hits the ground and/or wind from a nearby thunderstorm. The prickle is possible lightning, or the heightened sense of the presence of a thunderstorm, and I have NO IDEA why animals get skittery.

Answer 9

I just know - it's some kind of sixth sense I guess.