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season: early-summer
section: old names for storms
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the heat burst. a sudden blast of hot dry air that falls from a collapsing thunderstorm. temperatures can jump twenty degrees in minutes, late at night, with no warning. the old farmers had no name for it because it made no sense.

the dry storm. lightning with no rain. the most dangerous kind for starting fires. the sky flickers and nothing falls. the old word was "dry lightning" and it was feared.

a june thunderstorm that arrives at four in the afternoon was just called "the daily." it builds, it pours, it passes, and the steam rises off the road. the regularity of it is a comfort.

the derecho. a straight-line wind that flattens everything in its path. not a tornado but worse in some ways because it covers more ground. the name is spanish for "straight."