The game Mad Max takes place in a near future apocalyptic environment caused by ecocide. Ecocide can result in environmental changes, and the game's dev team Avalanche took full advantage of this. When playing you will randomly encounter sand storms that quickly turn the sky dark, and then massive lightning strikes come. Between the heavy winds, low visibility, and lightning strikes, your car and Max can take a lot of damage, and even be destroyed.
At the point a storm is approaching, you have two options, you can look for shelter via enemy camps you've cleared and such, or brave the storm. The risk reward element of braving the storm is there are big crates of scrap it dislodges, which you can hunt for. These scraps can help you upgrade things.
When I first started playing Mad Max, I would always seek shelter in storms, but once you have your car's and Max's armor fully upgraded, it becomes fun to hunt for the bonus scrap, plus it's quite a spectacle visually and physically to be part of.