I'd seen one other storm - just a heavy dust blow that came in off the Big Nothing relatively early in the game. No warning, but it pounded a base I was fighting at. Whether this was scripted or not, I don't know, but the total absence of any mention in dialogue or features or lore suggested it was random, to me. It also happened after the fighting, at an 'undramatic' time, merely providing a thick atmosphere as I hunted.
This was different, this was a *real* storm, and I was utterly unprepared, driving a damaged, fully laden Scrapulance in the desert, scouting out a camp in disguise and intending to drive it home after the fight.
Then the warning struck, I checked behind me, and the horizon looked high, and hungry...
I only managed to reach a water-source Roadkill camp before it hit, no chance of getting anywhere friendly or even secure. I had to jump out of the truck due to the lay of the land, and it was eventually taken out by huge chunks of metal scrap debris winging across the dunes in the gale. I'd have really missed that huge scrap haul if not for...
... if the storm, crackling with ambient electricity, pinning me inside a cargo container with just a guttering lamp for company, clinging to the club I'd taken from the few Roadkill who had attacked when I tried to share their shelter...
... hadn't left two mothalode crates against a nearby cliff-wall, not far from the Jaw, pushed there by the winds and unable to blow any further. I called in Chum with a flare and ran for the crates, only for a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ convoy to rush by just as I reached the first crate, heavily armoured and carrying a ton of boarders ready to leap. I took three heavy smashes before we even managed to get the car in gear, and were burning, with '1' hitpoint invisible on the meter by the time we got back to that roadkill camp over the dunes. With me fighting off Roadkill, the convoy crew pulled off and rejoined their route, and after a long repair with Chum we headed back to the main road - where the crates were still waiting.
Lost my first scrap haul with the truck blown sky high during the storm as I hid, paid back with a load of 600 in two huge crates abandoned by the winds. Well worth it.