A rash of severe weather took hold across a large portion of the eastern United States over the weekend, leaving a wide swath of death and destruction in its wake.
According to ABC News, the unusually strong storm system, which included more than 50 powerful tornadoes, has left at least 36 dead in seven states and caused untold damage in several others.
The true extent of the destruction wrought by the expansive weather pattern was just becoming evident with the arrival of daylight, with the death toll continuing to rise and the property damage bringing a sense of shock to those in the path of the storms.
Missouri has thus far reported the largest number of any of the impacted states, with 12 deaths on record as of Sunday morning.
Kansas was said to have suffered eight deaths, Mississippi saw six fatalities, four died in Texas, three in Arkansas, and one person was said to have lost their life in Oklahoma, according to ABC News, with multiple individuals still missing in affected areas.
Adding to the weather-induced chaos were multiple wildfires sparked in Oklahoma due to strong wind gusts which continued to fan the flames, according to AccuWeather.com.
Kansas as well as west and central Texas also saw the emergence of a far-reaching dust storm that resulted in poor visibility on the roadways and compromised air quality, and flight cancellations stemming from the weather conditions only contributed to the upheaval.
Unfortunately, the severe weather dangers were not isolated to Friday and Saturday, as Sunday was also expected to bring with it the need for increased vigilance.
As AccuWeather.com reported separately, the very same storm system was poised to bring further danger to the East Coast on Sunday, encompassing roughly 10 states.
Travel disruptions, power outages, downed trees, flash flooding, and risk to life and property were all expected to present themselves again as the weekend wound its way to conclusion.
“Strong wind gusts, hail and torrential downpours will be the greatest threats from the storms on Sunday as they progress from the I-81 and I-85 corridors to I-95; however, isolated tornadoes can still develop within the strongest storms,” AccuWeather meteorologists explained.
Fortunately, the outlet noted that the severe weather threat was poised to end late Sunday to early Monday when a cold front was expected to push off the Atlantic Coast.
Though the wave of death and destruction seen in recent days was certainly tragic, the storm event did not reach the historic proportions some feared it might, as Axios noted, but that is not to say that the reasons behind it will not be studied in great detail for some time to come.
Though some meteorologists continue to argue that climate change has contributed the severity of storm systems such as the one that took hold of the eastern U.S. in recent days, others have cast doubt on that theory, virtually ensuring that the debate among scientists in a range of disciplines will continue well into the future.
