Well I “survived” my first 'Midwest tornado fest.' The severe weather this past Thursday afternoon/evening brought more than 40 tornados to the state of Minnesota and more to the south in Iowa. Two of the Minnesota twisters were deadly. We were lucky in Fairmont to escape any touchdowns or damaging weather. It was a stressful day watching the TV and listing to the radio reports of what was going on all around us, wondering if we would hear the tornado sirens next.

But as is the case, first destruction, then beauty. At dusk, the massive storm front moved northeast, the sky displayed such almost surreal looking clouds. They are 'Aftermath Clouds' or as a weather professional friend said, they are “Mammatus” clouds and they usually show as a particularly potent thunderstorm moves out of an area. Indeed true.