[Les the Scientist (OP)]

This is going to virtually impossible to describe, but I occasionally smell something similar to that fresh smell down at the seaside.  The weird thing is it almost has a 'feeling' to it as well.  Like the strange static build up you can almost sense before a really big thunderstorm.  I'm sure someone once told me it was something to do with ozone but maybe I'm just making that up /  Anyway, the smell only ever seems to be present at two times, dawn and dusk.  Even then I think I've smelt it about 3 times in the past year.  Am I going mental ?  []

[Andrew K Fletcher]

Well Les,  Another name for a senti-mentalist is a perfumed lunatic perhaps?

As an early bird at times, and having been out in the sticks in the early an late hours, I am wandering, is it the smell you get after a rain has fallen after a long dry spell, kinda like being down by the river when in full flow. An earthy musty smell, like a freshly dug garden? Sometimes you can even smell it driving after a storm.

I have noticed a smell many times over the years and attributed it to dust particles being atomised and lifted into the air, caused by the sudden down rush of air from the storm, but this never did make much sense come to think of it. Another thought was that the sudden rush of water from a storm caused plants to flush out their systems with clean water releasing huge amounts of oxygen into the air. Living on the coast in Devon, it is not quite like the sea but a similar refreshing reviltilising odour playing on a distant memory.

[Ultima]

I know the sensation, im living at the coast at the moment. Could it have something to do with atmospheric pressure and the quality of the air? Sea air is really clean and fairly free of dust etc. I imagine that dirt would be affected by the charge in a thunderstorm too. Plus barometric pressure is going to be different in a thunderstorm and at the coast... you get that "heavy" air sensation before thunderstorms... Would be good if someone had an actual science answer for this []

wOw the world spins?

[Monox D. I-Fly]

Like the strange static build up you can almost sense before a really big thunderstorm.

Wait, so humans can actually feel with their skin when a really big thunderstorm will occur like what Nami did in One Piece? I live in a country where thunderstorms are rare, so I didn't know...

[chiralSPO]

Wait, so humans can actually feel with their skin when a really big thunderstorm will occur like what Nami did in One Piece? I live in a country where thunderstorms are rare, so I didn't know...

No we can't feel the static buildup before a storm (I don't think there is one, a thunderstorm is the result of several successive buildups and discharges, each is local in time and space). But you can definitely feel the static buildup immediately before a nearby lightning strike. Many years ago, lightening struck a tree right next to my house. I was right by the window at the time (which was open because I was watching the storm), and I definitely felt my hair stand on end just before the lightning strike!

There is a general feeling that one gets as the storm comes in (I have experienced this before hurricanes, blizzards, and thunder storms). My guess is that it has to do with the pressure drop in increase in humidity.

[Monox D. I-Fly]

So, basically... Thunderstorms give us goosebumps before they occur?