Starting from an overview on the research on thunderstorms in the last forty years, this paper provides a general discussion on some emerging issues and new frameworks for wind loading on structures in mixed climates. Omitting for sake of simplicity tropical cyclones and tornadoes, three main aspects are pointed out. The first concerns the separation and classification of different intense wind events into extra-tropical depressions, thunderstorms and gust fronts, with the aim of improving the interpretation of the phenomena of engineering interest, the probabilistic analysis of the maximum wind velocity, the determination of the wind-induced response and the safety format for structures. The second deals with the use of the response spectrum technique, not only as a potentially efficient tool for calculating the structural response to thunderstorms, but also as a mean for revisiting the whole wind-excited response in a more general and comprehensive framework. The third involves the statistical analysis of extreme wind velocities in mixed climates, pointing out some shortcomings of the approaches currently used for evaluating wind loading on structures and depicting a new scenario for a more rational scheme aiming to pursue structural safety. The paper is set in the spirit of mostly simplified analyses and mainly qualitative remarks, in order to capture the conceptual aspects of the problems dealt with and put on the table ideas open to discussion and further developments.