10 Songs About Hurricanes and Stormy Days You’ll Love
Hurricanes are often lyrical metaphors for hard times, destruction, extreme anger, and emotional chaos. They are fierce, powerful, chaotic, and relentless—and there’s tons of music available about them! So here are 10 songs about hurricanes that make us think about our own lives, the not-so-awesome times, and how we hopefully persevere in the end.
Surfing in a Hurricane by Jimmy Buffett
Buffet—Mississippi-born and Alabama-raised—is no stranger to hurricanes or music about surrendering to Mother Nature with some fun island music and a drink in our hand.
This song sounds like the theme music to a cool, groovy surf crime show. Or a Quentin Tarantino movie. This is a song about being fearless the midst of a raging storm. Instead of evacuating, he is going surfing in the hurricane.
Here’s a song about excitement and the acceptance that life does as it pleases. We can freak out and leave. Or we can be crazy and stay. Either way, this lighthearted jam should be on any lazy Sunday Funday BBQ playlist. Surfs up.
Hurricane Drunk by Florence and the Machine
“And you can’t save me now. I’m in the grip of a hurricane. I’m going to blow myself away. I’m going out. I’m going to drink myself to death,” sings Florence in this angry but laid-back alternative cheating song.
he’s upset and very aware of the oncoming hurricane of emotions coming her way. We feel you Florence. Let’s go get some shots.
Tie My Hands by Lil Wayne featuring Robin Thicke
“The only thing that can save us now is sensitivity and compassion,” opens Robin in this gently swaying rap song about the abandonment of New Orleans by the US government after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Lil Wayne, a New Orleans native, gives us a song about hope, spirit, and compassion. Saying to his city, “Yup, this sucks, we need help and it’s not coming. But you know what? We got this.” Wayne sings of a time when life got super real for millions of people in America. And instead of relying on the government for help, they relied on each other.
Your Hurricane by Heather Morgan
Heather Morgan gives us a country song about hurricanes with this track. This heartbreak ballad shows us the other side of love. When things get hard and one of us has big emotions. It can be a brutal place and often the end of many relationships. There is a romantic notion of sticking with someone through thick and thin—even though it hurts.
It’s been idealized by society as the truest form of love. Certainly, we strive to accept everyone as they are, especially people we love. We stand in their s***storms over and over again because we love them. We let them throw the hot molasses of their innards out onto us, even though it hurts.
This song is for those of us who love difficult people. For the exhausted or indifferent, yet still very much in love. The end of the relationship and not being able to let go. The root of many classic break-up songs.
Heather Morgan’s song is the best thing we never heard on country radio. So do yourself a favor and go back to 2018 for 3 minutes and 23 seconds.
Hurricane by Fleurie
On this song, Fleurie is breathing sadness through this haunting piano-laced song about mental illness and its effects on loved ones. If Dido and Amy Lee from Evanescence had a baby, Fleurie would be it.
This is a love song and a warning about the hurricane of mental illness. She aches for her loved ones. Want to let them in. But she can’t when she is screwed up. We can relate.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 52.9 million Americans have a mental illness. This song is a peek into the emotional battle of someone struggling and watching the people she loves experience her in such a dark way. It’s deep, dreamy music perfect for the hot tub or that late-night walk on the beach.
Rock You Like A Hurricane by the Scorpions
Here comes a classic heavy metal number from the 80s about being, well, horny. Rock You Like a Hurricane is the song we had playing on the Fiero when we were driving the backroads to the weekend kegger in the woods. It’s full of energy, passion, and confidence about sexuality.
He feels very secure in his abilities and he is energetically on the prowl for the next victim of his hurricane. Makes us think of trans-ams, muscle shirts, and big hair.
Hurricane (Acoustic) by Parachute
“Oh when I cut you off, it was something that I had to do. You can try to push it down but it’s always going to follow you,” sings Will Anderson in this dysfunctional pop ballad.
A piano, apparently the instrument of the forlorn, and a guitar serenade Anderson’s sweet struggle to let go. And we get the moments our emotions swirl, confusion tires us, and powerlessness abides. We remember wanting to stay and needing to go. And the crumbling architecture inside of us as we make sense of things nonsensical.
Hurricanes by Dido
Pretty sure some of us secretly owned the cassette single of Dido’s Here With Me. This song is no different but there is a twist. She’s no longer pining for a lost love instead she is telling a new one that she wants to experience the hurricanes of life with them.
“Let me face the sound and fury. Let me face hurricanes,” she sings, “Let me not turn away from happiness or pain. Just not to run away in my heart and head.” Boom. Mic drop. She wants to be here for all of it and to overcome every single inch of her emotional life.
Well, that’s certainly better than fighting paralysis and bedsores because we are afraid. Hurricanes are the storms of life coupled with our bullshit. We can run away from ourselves and others or we lean right on in and experience life. Either choice offers some pretty rad music.
Dido gives us a warm seat next to her and helps us feel a little less crazy. Thank you.
Butterflies and Hurricanes by Muse
Muse makes us think of Edward Cullen and vampires. We can’t help but end up in the same headspace with this song too. It’s dreamy and imaginative. We can imagine running in the woods, filled with triumph, and covered in blood in this lengthy masterpiece of alternative dark pop. It’s full of darkness, strength, and classic Muse.
Muse is referencing the chaos theory The Butterfly Effect which asserts that tiny changes can have big impacts later. Every choice has a consequence. What if we choose bravery?
Hurricane by Luke Combs
Country boy Luke Combs gives us a quintessential “Jesus Christ What The Hell Is She Doing Here Tonight!” drinking song. It’s a dive bar beauty for nights we are trying to relax and our ex walks in. We can relate.
We’ve been full of booze and bad decisions. It’s about doing our best to get over someone while struggling to let them go. Everything you need for a hurricane. No doubt it’s been played on many drunken jukebox nights.
“You wrecked my whole world when you came and it hit me like a hurricane,” sings Combs as he searches for his keys so he can drive her home. A song of powerlessness. Sometimes, it takes everything we have to stay away from people.
And often we fail. This is a perfect six-pack and bonfire song with the boys.
Conclusion
Hurricanes are relentless, unapologetic, and destructive. And yet, somehow, there are people that manage to survive them.
But that doesn’t mean they walk away unscathed. In fact, survivors are often left to repair the damage and figure out how to return to a sense of normalcy.
Hurricanes, as terrible as they can be, are also a beautiful metaphor for life, relationships, and survival. And because of that, there will always be a need for songs about hurricanes.
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