I cut my teeth as a pilot in the Midwest — the Chicago area to be exact — and I learned lots about weather during those days. Among the things I learned is that 97 percent of weather is safely navigable (by a qualified and current pilot in a properly-equipped airplane, but that's another subject for another article), and the important part is staying away from the other 3 percent because it's definitely going to turn you into a statistic. The obvious safe way to approach this subject is to never fly when there is a chance of unpleasantness in the forecast, but as those of you in the Chicago area know, had I done that I'd probably still have about 300 hours.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/flight-safety/technique/microbursts-and-other-thunderstorm-nastiness