Hastings, Nebraska

Out here in storm country, the scary part isn't always the noise. Sometimes it's the quiet. As a supercell pulls in warm, humid air to feed its updraft, the surface wind can briefly drop and the air goes heavy and charged. The birds notice it first. They stop singing and take cover, sensitive to the falling pressure long before we feel a thing. Some can hear even further out. In a 2014 study published in Current Biology, golden-winged warblers in Tennessee fled one to two days ahead of a tornado outbreak, traveling more than 900 miles round trip, likely cued by infrasound below human hearing. So if the breeze dies, the songbirds hush, and the whole world seems to hold its breath, don't relax. That held-breath stillness is often the moment right before it hits.