El Derecho, or, When Air Attacks

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Yesterday I was treated to my first scary Minnesota weather episode, if you don't count the twenty below when I was here in January, which you probably should.

The gist of it is that a massive blackish-green wall of doom stretching for miles in either direction advanced on my humble office. I went out and took a couple of pictures, and while I snapped away the air was completely calm, but moments after I went back inside it hit like a giant leafblower (us being the hapless leaves).

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A huge rush of debris rushed through our inner courtyard. Outside, a co-worker's Caddy trembled in fear of possible golf ball hail.


The hail didn't hit here, but elsewhere hail over an inch and a quarter in diameter was reported. The weather phenomena, known as a Derecho (means straight ahead in Spanish) is a straight-line of high winds and thunderstorms that advances quickly in a south-easterly direction. This is what radar looks like When Air Attacks:

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Very scary, but the trees look really beautiful up against that scary sky. We have those trees here. The ends of them are soft as kittens in the spring. I believe they are fir trees?

Okay, I have to ask. Why the name "mackerel street?"

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Welcome to Northern Word, the online home of writer/photographer Susan McNerney. Here you'll find nature and travel photography, thoughts on writing, travelogues and other snippets. Susan is originally from California's Redwood Empire and now lives and writes in Minnesota.

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