The exhilaration of observing a windswept coastline from the safety of a warm and cosy spot indoors

According to the ‘hierarchy of needs’ theory propounded in 1943 by American psychologist Abraham Maslow, a requirement for human growth is that we enjoy ‘peak experiences’. These, Maslow expands, are ‘rare’ and ‘exhilarating’ moments that ‘generate an advanced form of perceiving reality, and are even mystic and magical’.

All of which sounds a lot like how I feel when watching storms. The ever-surprising shock of flashing or forking lightning in a silver sky and the primal bellow of thunder as rain thrashes down never fail to produce an ecstatic feeling, nor the need to watch: when a storm starts, my instinct is always to pause what I’m working on, find a decent viewing position and watch and listen in awe. They’re relatively uncommon, after all, for most of us, as well as satisfyingly brazen. This, it always seems, is Mother Nature unhinged, and properly letting her hair down. Perhaps you’re of a similar mind. In 2019, Britons ranked rainfall on windows as their second-favourite sound, ahead of chirping birds, crackling fires and leaves crunching underfoot. And on the social news website Reddit, there are long, enduring threads in which self-confessed ‘pluviophiles’ detail how inclement weather soothes their anxiety: ‘I get hope from storms,’ says one. Many contributors also listen to euphonious rain soundtracks while turning in at night.