Crossword Genius

Terrible blow where driest winds circling it (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

disaster

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'terrible blow' is the definition.
'disaster' can be an answer for 'blow' (I've seen this before). I'm not sure about the 'terrible' bit.

'driest winds circling it' is the wordplay.
'winds' indicates an anagram (the letters wind around).
'circling' means one lot of letters goes inside another (circling can mean going around or containing).
'it' becomes 'sa' (SA can mean sex appeal, as in 'it').
'driest' with letters rearranged gives 'dister'.
'dister' going around 'sa' is 'DISASTER'.

'where' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for disaster that I've seen before include "terrible trouble" , "Heavy blow" , "Catastrophic occurrence" , "not a success!" , "Extreme event resulting in great loss and misfortune" .)

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