Wild weather was in the forecast for Friday, but no one predicted how bad the tornado outbreak would turn out to be.

They are still assessing the damage of the tornado outbreak across 5 states late on Friday night and early Saturday morning. The severity of the outbreak and the duration of the tornadoes is terrifying.

The damage is devastating and heartbreaking.

So far, over 70 people are reported killed. A nursing home in Monette, Arkansas. A candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky. An Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, where the roof collapsed, trapping workers inside.

Houses have been blown away, only concrete slabs remaining. Bark has been stripped off trees. Unofficial spotters on the scene say the wind damage looks like an EF-4 or EF-5 tornado.

This outbreak was the southern edge of a storm system that brought the first major snowstorm and over 10 inches of snow to Minneapolis/St.Paul area to the north.

Chicago was in the middle of it all.

Yes, there was some storm damage, here, too. Tree branches down, and 60 mph wind gusts reported.

Is this a pattern of more severe storms to come due to climate change? Yes, I think so.

I also think about Dr Ted Fujita, creator of the Fujita wind scale, and how he tried to make sense of what tornadoes are, and the surreal damage these winds can cause. Here is a post about Dr. Fujita.

I think how blessed we are to be where we are, in spite of uncertainty and increasing violence, in the middle of the plague years, to be making coffee on a Saturday morning, picking up fallen branches. The miraculous ordinary of people walking their dogs in the evening, a clear sky, and the quarter moon.