“I’ll Never Forget the Thunderstorm of 1960, I Think It Was”: Storm Stories

The article is about talking of weather when it takes a narrative form and has a more dramatic character. The stories are personally experienced and is what I call a “storm story,” which deals with the experience of thunderstorms and storms. It contains many of the characteristics that constitute a narrative. I have focuses on dramatic but frequently occurring weather experiences. My approach is methodological, with a focus on the elements of “almost” stories drawn from responses to a questionnaire entitled “Nice Weather Today!” (“Vackert väder idag!” in Swedish). My objective is to examine how storm experiences assume a narrative form. I will look at how one talks about their experiences and why they are often dramatic and emotional in character. My hope is also to offer a way to analyze written stories based on experiences. My intention is to deepen the analysis throughout the text, beginning by identifying the elements of the narrative, looking then at narrative form and emotionality, and finally analyzing storm stories as micronarratives, focusing on narrative exaggeration as a way of understanding the dramatization of existential fear.