Fear of Thunder and Lightning
Astraphobia
Astraphobia is the only fear in this catalogue whose object is published in advance. Most phobias are triggered by encounter; a thunderstorm is forecast, and the fear reorganises itself around the forecast. English Wikipedia treats a heightened interest in weather reports as a diagnostic sign, and the 2015 reference Phobias: The Psychology of Irrational Fear describes constant monitoring across television weather networks, radio and other media as a behaviour specific to the condition.
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Why watching replaces avoiding
That inverts the usual shape. A person who fears dogs stops going where dogs are, which reduces the number of encounters and the amount of thinking about dogs. A person who fears storms watches for them, which increases both. The vigilance is the illness rather than a symptom of it, and the article traces the endpoint plainly: not going outside without checking the weather first, and in severe cases a reluctance to leave the house at all.
Which behaviours target the sound
The rest of the description is a set of attempts to reduce noise:
- hiding under a bed, under bedding, in a wardrobe or in a basement
- fingers in the ears
- curtains drawn to muffle the thunder
Symptoms worsen when the person is alone, and reassurance from another person is actively sought, which is unusual among specific phobias and closer to how separation fears behave.
What Westefeld named and found
In 1996 the psychologist John Westefeld coined severe weather phobia for an intense and unreasonable fear of severe weather, particularly thunderstorms and tornadoes. He also supplied the fact most useful for thinking about how it starts: between sixty-five and eighty per cent of the participants in his studies had direct experience of a severe storm.
That is a high proportion, and it makes this fear less like a spider fear and more like a fear formed by an event. Watt and DiFrancescantonio added the other routes in 2012, parental modelling and warnings among them, and named a specific vicarious source: watching television coverage of storms, with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as the example.
Where it sits among the subtypes
Astraphobia belongs to the natural environment group, alongside heights and water, one of the five specific phobia types in DSM-5. The group has a peculiar profile: second only to animal phobias in adult clinical samples, and the least often reported of all in community samples. Between fifty-five and ninety per cent of people with a natural environment phobia are female.
Ollendick, Raishevich, Davis, Sirbu and Öst found in 2010 that young people with natural environment phobias reported more physical symptoms of anxiety and depression, more additional anxiety diagnoses, and lower satisfaction with quality of life than young people with animal phobias. Within that group, thunderstorms are the most commonly reported fear.
Wikipedia states that scientists found astraphobia to be the third most prevalent phobia in the United States in 2007, and names no study, no institution and no measure. The figure travels widely and this catalogue records it as unattributed.
Which names the storm fear carries
Astraphobia, astrapophobia, brontophobia, ceraunophobia, keraunophobia and tonitrophobia are all in use. Astrape is Greek for lightning, which Wikipedia's article glosses as thunder in its own etymology section, an error in the source rather than a disagreement between sources. Bronte is thunder, keraunos is a thunderbolt, and tonitrus is Latin for thunder.
Why the animal literature is larger
Between fifteen and thirty per cent of dogs are affected, and the physiological evidence is more direct than for most human phobias: cortisol rises during and after storms. Dog appeasing pheromone, a synthetic analogue of a hormone secreted by nursing mothers, is among the interventions used. Cats are also affected, less commonly, and hide behind furniture.
A storm phobia in a seventy-year-old woman was reduced using a virtual reality system that simulated thunder and lightning, which is the only individual case in the material.
Told apart
Often confused with Fear of Thunder and Lightning
- Fear of SoundAlmost every described behaviour in the storm literature is an attempt to reduce sound: hands over the ears, curtains drawn, hiding in a basement. Phonophobia takes the noise itself as the object, and a storm fear does not end when the thunder does.
- Fear of Tornadoes and HurricanesWestefeld's severe weather phobia covers both, and his participants were frightened of storms and tornadoes together, so the two terms describe overlapping populations rather than separate conditions.
- AgoraphobiaWikipedia traces a path from checking the forecast before going out to not going out at all. The endpoint resembles agoraphobia and arrives by a different route, through surveillance rather than through panic.
Common questions
Questions about Astraphobia
- Why is watching the weather a sign of the phobia rather than sensible?
- Because of how much of it there is. The described pattern is constant monitoring across weather networks, radio and online storm tracking, and a refusal to leave the house before checking. Most fears are managed by avoiding the object, which reduces how much a person thinks about it. This one is managed by surveillance, which increases it.
- Does a person need to have been through a bad storm?
- Often, and more often than for most phobias. Westefeld reported in 1996 that between sixty-five and eighty per cent of his participants had direct experience of a severe storm. Watt and DiFrancescantonio added observational and vicarious routes in 2012, including watching television coverage of storms such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
- Is astraphobia really the third most common phobia in America?
- The claim appears on Wikipedia attributed to scientists in 2007, with no study, institution or measure named. Nothing in the material read for this entry supports it. It is repeated widely and should be treated as unsourced.
- Why does the article say astrape means thunder?
- It is an error in the source. Astrape is the Greek for lightning; bronte is thunder, which is where brontophobia comes from. The mistake sits in the etymology section of an article whose subject is the difference between the two.
- How many dogs are affected?
- Between fifteen and thirty per cent, with cortisol measured as elevated during and after storms, which is more direct physiological evidence than exists for many human phobias. Interventions include counter-conditioning, anti-anxiety medication and a synthetic analogue of a hormone secreted by nursing mothers.
- Was virtual reality used on it?
- In one case. A storm phobia in a seventy-year-old woman was reduced using a system that simulated thunder and lightning. It is the only individual treatment case in the material and it is reported without follow-up.
Added 2026-08-23 · Revised 2026-08-26
Nearby in the catalogue
Related entries
- Fear of SoundThe name says loud; the reported sounds are a door closing and something in the kitchen. The line between it and hyperacusis decides what treatment is safe.
- Fear of Tornadoes and HurricanesWikipedia's own etymology section calls this term a fallacious neologism. The correct form is lailapophobia, and the fear underneath it is often trauma.
- AgoraphobiaWestphal coined it in 1871 from agora, the marketplace. The situations it covers include queues, cinemas and being at home alone. What unites them is escape.
- Fear of FireworksFirework fear affects 52 percent of dogs and starts in the first year. The treatment data is blunt: only medication and food beat placebo range.
- Fear of SnowWeather cannot be walked around, so the avoidance described is moving to a warmer climate or not leaving the house between November and March.
- Fear of Stars and Celestial SpaceOne vowel from astraphobia and constantly swapped with it. A religious movement published a second definition in 2020 and copyrighted it.