The Cycle (The Storm) can be scary when new to the game, but there is nothing to be afraid of if you come mental prepared.
Further more the storm is really helpful, it respawns loot and monsters everywhere as long theres no player close by.

Me as a solo-player learned how to use the storm for the hard tasks as an adventage, for that we need to know some info about the storm first:

The Storm itself is unpredictable, theres no time set for when a storm will start, i think there is more of a pause between each storms to prevent them from happening too frequently.
10 minutes before the storm there will be no new prostector drop on the map, noticable when it starts raining but there is no 5 min countdown timer yet.
You will get a notification 5 minutes and 1 minute before the storm hits.
each storm lasts for 4 min 40 sec.
as soon the storm ends, new prospectors will drop in again.
theres random lightning strikes and every ~10'ish seconds a lightning will strike your position which will predict where you running
lightning strikes can be dodged and is pretty easy to do so.
While the storm is active, the EVAC can not be called, you can call it right before the storm (it still lands) or as soon the storm is over.

Now to the fun part:
There is plenty of quests in The Cycle: Frontier hard to complete, as example having to upgrade a data drive in an uplink makes so much noise exposing your position to the entire map.
Use the storm to cover this awful noise and to make sure its the lowest player count on the map as possible (player tend to leave before the storm, because they dont know its their friend)
You dont even need to bring an data drive with you, when it starts to rain or you get the 5 min notification head to the comms tower, loot the building west at comms tower (there is always 3 to 8 data drives, most of them in the upper floor at the computers and shelves)
run to the north uplink und wait for the storm to start, for me im always there before the 1 minute notification so i use the time to check around for loot. (dont use the uplink yet)
Also maybe try to dodge the striders there and save them for the storm, free charged spinal bases.
As soon the storm hits, you can start upgrading your data drives, the storm lasts long enough to upgrade a tier 1 drive to tier 4, but remember your friend wont stay forever.
so upgrade your data drive to the tier you need, as example theres a quest where you have to stash a tier 3 datadrive at basecamp, by upgrading a tier 1 to tier 3 you still should have ~1 minute of storm time you can use to safely get to base camp and stash that data drive.
(be aware, basecamp is an hotspot and there maybe someone seeking shelter from the storm, so keep an eye out when entering any building or cave)


you can use the storm for all sorts of quests, hunting marauders or even the new howler, you only have to learn to get comfy within the storm, get a feeling for the timing when a lightning strikes and how to manage your stamina to not get hit offguard by an lightning strike or monster.
A flashlight comes in handy when fighting monsters and always remember your "Q"-flashlight when moving around for less stamina drain.
Having the storm as a friend makes it also easy to obtain any glowy brightcap mushrooms or charged spinal bases.

hope you found a way now to complete your quests in peace while still having the fun annoying others doing theirs

that being said, see you in the storm prospector!