Yes, thunderstorms I seem to remember will affect the ADF more and cause it to give spurious readings.
Not sure about it being called 'needle hunting' though. I thought that was a poor method of ADF (or VOR/ILS) tracking where a pilot 'follows the needle' instead of a wind corrected HDG and ends up making a sinusoidal path about the track required line.
Could be wrong though....
EK