Grimsvotn

Another Icelandic Volcano covers northern Europe with ash.

It was actually yesterday, looking at pictures of tornado devastation in Missouri, that I had a thought about habitable planets. Maybe a temperature range that supports liquid water isn't enough; maybe a planet would also have to have the right amount of storminess. If the earth were an order of magnitude more stormy than it is, could we survive? On the other hand, if the planet were so calm that it did not have weather to stir things up, would higher life develop or spread?