A "norte" is the Veracruz version of a Nor'easter. The wind blows very hard out of the north, sometimes 100 km/h (62 mph) or more. It oftens brings rain. The temperature almost always drops to 70F or below. People bundle up in ski parkas and knit stocking caps. They don't go to church because it is too cold and windy. In the storm featured in the following few pictures, schools were closed because of the bitter wind. Honestly, it was 75 degrees Farenheit. But, closed they were. These pictures on taken on the malecon ,or levee, which is built up all along the hotel front of the city which borders the usually calm and flat Gulf of Mexico. There is a sea wall to fend off the storms, which are very real. The first picture shows the sand blowing in from right to left. The second shows the sand fluting up through cracks in the sidewalk above the malecon.