I was in two tornadoes when a kid, and I was really frightened of them for years. Since I associated thunder and lightening with tornadoes, I transferred the fear of tornadoes to fear of loud thunder and bright lightening. Now I just respect lightening and don't fear either.
Only time it scared me when I was a kid was when those loud crack booms would go on in the middle of the night. Otherwise, I have always loved stormy weather. There was a section of my early 20's when I was irrationally terrified of storms. Lightning struck the tree across the street, it was insanely loud. I heard sirens right after. That did it, I was terrified every time it stormed, til I lived in a trailer. The "ceiling" so thin, it was easy to break me of the fear.
