What is a ‘Land Hurricane’ and Did One Hit Rochester This Morning?

If those howling winds last night kept you tossing and turning, you weren’t alone. I was up at 5:30 AM checking my phone for info on the weather, and I saw a term I can't remember ever seeing in all my years living here in Minnesota: "Land Hurricane." Here's a screenshot from my phone with the explanation below:

What Is A Land Hurricane?

A "land hurricane" is actually a colloquial term for a derecho according to the Smithsonian Institute.

These are massive, fast-moving windstorms that hit with destructive straight-line winds of 58 mph or higher. Now, I’m not a meteorologist, so I can't officially confirm if last night’s gusts were strong enough or lasted long enough to technically meet that classification. We'll need to wait for confirmation from the National Weather Service.

However, I can confirm they were definitely strong enough to create some major problems across the region. According to reports from KROC News, a High Wind Warning was in effect as gusts peaked at 69 mph at the Rochester Airport.  

• Power Outages: Rochester Public Utilities crews were out in force early Friday morning dealing with multiple outages, primarily south of Highway 14.
• School Closures: The lack of power was so severe that Mayo High School had to cancel classes for the day.
• Road Hazards: The winds were strong enough to blow over a semi-truck on Highway 63 near the Iowa border, resulting in an injury crash.

Unfortunately, that "land hurricane" was just the opening act for a very long weekend. We are transitioning from high winds to potentially historic snowfall.

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Forecasters are calling for a massive dump of snow starting late Saturday night. We’re looking at a foot or more of snow in southeast Minnesota. The National Weather Service has already issued a Winter Storm Watch for the Area.

Make sure the snowblower is gassed up, your devices are charged, and you stay off the roads once the heavy stuff starts coming down.