Сильный ветер пугает меня ночью.

Because it has to agree with ветер.

• ветер is masculine
• singular
• nominative case because it is the subject

So the adjective also becomes masculine singular nominative: сильный.

This is the basic agreement pattern in Russian:

• сильный ветер = strong wind
• сильная буря = strong storm
• сильное чувство = strong feeling
• сильные ветры = strong winds

Because ветер is the subject of the sentence — the thing doing the action.

In Сильный ветер пугает меня ночью, the wind is what frightens/scares me, so ветер is in the nominative.

A very literal breakdown is:

• Сильный ветер = strong wind
• пугает = frightens / scares
• меня = me
• ночью = at night

So the structure is basically:

[Subject] + [verb] + [object] + [time expression]

Because the subject is ветер, which is third person singular.

Russian present-tense verbs agree with the subject:

• я пугаю
• ты пугаешь
• он / она / оно пугает
• мы пугаем
• вы пугаете
• они пугают

Since ветер = it and is singular, the verb is пугает.

Because меня is the form of я used for the direct object.

Here, I am not doing the action; I am receiving it. The wind is scaring me, so Russian uses the accusative case:

• я = I
• меня = me

Compare:

• Я вижу ветер. = I see the wind.
• Ветер пугает меня. = The wind scares me.

So меня is exactly what you would expect after a transitive verb like пугать.

Because Russian often uses the instrumental case to express time in certain set expressions, and ночью is one of the most common examples.

• ночь = night
• ночью = at night / during the night

This is a very common adverbial use:

• утром = in the morning
• днём = in the daytime / during the day
• вечером = in the evening
• ночью = at night

So ночью is not random — it is a very normal Russian way to express time.

Usually, no, not for the simple meaning at night.

The normal choice here is ночью.

• ночью = at night
• в ночь usually means on the night of... or movement into a night-related time frame, so it is much more specific and less neutral
• в ночи is poetic/literary in many contexts, not the ordinary everyday way to say at night

So if you just want to say at night, use ночью.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Russian present tense often covers both:

• a general/habitual meaning
• a right now meaning

So Сильный ветер пугает меня ночью could mean:

• Strong wind scares me at night (general truth / repeated experience)
• The strong wind is scaring me tonight/at night (if the context makes it clear)

If you want to make the habitual meaning more obvious, Russian might use something like:

• Сильный ветер пугает меня по ночам. = Strong wind scares me at night / at nights / during the nights

That sounds more clearly habitual than ночью.

Both can relate to night, but they are used a little differently.

• ночью = at night, during the night
• по ночам = at nights, nights in general, night after night, habitually

So:

• Сильный ветер пугает меня ночью. can be general or situational
• Сильный ветер пугает меня по ночам. sounds more clearly like a repeated pattern

A learner-friendly shortcut:

• ночью = at night
• по ночам = at night(s), regularly / habitually

No, Russian word order is fairly flexible.

The neutral order here is:

• Сильный ветер пугает меня ночью.

But you could also say:

• Ночью сильный ветер пугает меня.
• Меня ночью пугает сильный ветер.
• Сильный ветер ночью пугает меня.

The basic meaning stays the same, but the emphasis changes.

For example:

• Ночью сильный ветер пугает меня. puts at night first, so it highlights the time.
• Меня ночью пугает сильный ветер. puts me earlier, which can sound more contrastive or emotionally focused.

For learners, it is safest to start with the neutral order: subject + verb + object + time expression

Because Russian does not have articles like English a/an and the.

So ветер can mean:

• a wind
• the wind
• just wind

The exact meaning depends on context.

In this sentence, English would normally choose the or no article depending on context:

• The strong wind scares me at night
• Strong wind scares me at night

Russian simply says:

• Сильный ветер пугает меня ночью.

Пугать is imperfective.

That matters because the imperfective is the normal aspect for:

• ongoing actions
• repeated actions
• general facts
• present tense statements

Since this sentence is in the present tense, the verb must be imperfective:

• пугает = scares / is scaring

The perfective partner is usually испугать, but perfective verbs do not normally have a true present meaning in Russian. Their so-called present forms usually refer to the future.

So for a sentence like this, пугает is exactly the right choice.

A natural pronunciation with stress is:

Си́льный ве́тер пуга́ет меня́ но́чью.

Helpful notes:

• си́льный: stress on the first syllable
• ве́тер: stress on ве
• пуга́ет: stress on га
• меня́: stress on the last syllable
• но́чью: stress on the first syllable

A rough English-friendly approximation is:

• SEEL-nyy VYE-ter poo-GA-yet mee-NYA NO-chyu

But it is better to listen to native audio if possible, especially for:

• the soft consonants
• the я in меня
• the чью cluster in ночью

Yes, but the most natural translation is usually strong wind.

The adjective сильный has a broad meaning range:

• strong
• powerful
• intense

With ветер, English normally says strong wind, not powerful wind, even though the idea is similar.

So:

• сильный ветер = strong wind

That is the standard collocation in both languages.

Not if you want to keep the meaning scares me.

• Сильный ветер пугает меня ночью. = The strong wind scares me at night.
• Сильный ветер пугает ночью. = Strong wind scares at night.

The second sentence sounds incomplete in normal Russian, because пугать usually needs an object — it scares someone.

So меня is important here.

Yes, it is grammatically correct and natural.

That said, depending on exactly what you want to express, a native speaker might also say:

• Ночью сильный ветер пугает меня.
• Сильный ветер страшит меня ночью. though this is more literary
• Я боюсь сильного ветра ночью. = I am afraid of strong wind at night
• Сильный ветер по ночам меня пугает. = Strong wind scares me at night(s)

So your sentence is perfectly good, but Russian offers several natural alternatives depending on style and emphasis.