How to deal with pawn storms against the king

How does one defend against pawn storms? 
I’ve heard that one should counterattack, but what do you do when that isn’t an option, like when you’re too far behind... Is there any principles around this? I lost a game today due to this, so I wanna learn.

thanks

For starters, you should clarify if the pawn storm is justified. If you can develop stronger and faster threats, then it isn't justified. The threats don't necessarily need to be on the center or the other flank but right where the pawns are advancing, as they may not only leave good squares for your pieces but may also become targets themselves. Here applies Nimzowitsch's "first restrain, then blockade and finally destroy".

Now let's say that the pawn storm is justified and you can't use active defense. A pawn storm usually has two goals: To clear lines for the pieces to infiltrate the enemy position, and to establish one or several pawns as support for infiltration. In both cases, the main technique is to establish one or several defensive lines, typically composed by a mixture of pawns and pieces supporting each other, flexible enough to support your own pawns where they are, and to advance any should a pawn exchange is offered, thus keeping the lines closed for the invaders.

Sometimes you can directly oppose a pawn eg. meet h4 with h5. Look hard for counterplay in the centre/other side of the board. You have to analyse the position and decide if you can make meaningful counterplay or if you must try to blunt the pawn storm directly. If you must blunt it then you must organise your pieces in time. 

Like Nicator says, a pawn storm basically has two goals: open lines, and infiltrate.

If the attack is correct then you really can't stop either one... so you have to choose to concede the least harmful things you can. If they're going to open the h file and infiltrate on h7, then set up some kind of arrangement to minimize the damage once that happens.

I know that's vague, but it's hard to be specific when we're not looking at a position.

Ultimately if the attack is good, then you should lose, and no defense will be possible. In that case you have to get tricky and creative and try to make a mess of the position.

And it may be worth pointing out that, whether the position involves a pawn storm or not, any time you have no prospects for active play of your own then something has already gone wrong. If we're talking about analysis, then you should definitely analyze what happened before that, because after-the-fact defenses don't mean a lot. In other words the damage has already been done.

Offer your opponent to resign!

*joined 1 hr ago*

Woah, no need to take it so personally

Regardless, on h4-h5, playing h6 isn't exactly optimal. Neither is g4-g5 then opting to play g6 as Black. It just creates another weakness (to attack). There are some cases where these moves are actually good, but 95% of the time, you shouldn't push a Kingside pawn when you have castled and your opponent is pawn storming you (on the Kingside)

Eg.

Haha, closed account  @whybotherwithisdump