Show TORNADOES What They Are Where and When They Occur By Prof Marie IV arriiigtou Chief of tho Weather Bureau Copyright 1893 by Mark TV Barrington WASHINGTON April + Probably the most intense action of the forces of the air are to be seen in the tornado Their force and velocity have been such that a lath has been driven through a sapling reminding re-minding one of the old experiment of firing a candle through a board The won tornado is from the Spanish Span-ish and means twisted Tornadoes proper are essentially twisters small whirls of great intensity but along with the twisting occur several curious features fea-tures in part easily seen to be the result of this twisting in part not easy to explain ex-plain For instance tornadoes are apt to carry much mud and dirt with them and this they drive with such force into timber and clothing that it is about impossible to get it out again When a tornado crosses a northandsouth fence and leaves it standing toward the south end the mud is plastered on the west side and toward the north on the east side this is because the tornado is a whirl and the direction of motionis contrary to I that of the sun The tornado often strips the clothing I entirely off its human victims If its victims I vic-tims are fowls the feathers are often stripped off completely Tornadoes sometimes exercise a curious expansive action If the walls of a house are not carried away and especially if the whirl passes centrally over it they are likely to fall not inwards or toward one side but outward in all directions At other times the effect is more like that of suction Boxes are opened and their contents tossed out Files of papers are neatly uncovered and the papers promptly distributed all over the country but especially toward the northeast A story of a bonnet will illustrate this feature of the action of tornadoes In Tennessee lived an old couple in a log cabin with a large fireplace The old lady was preparing to go to town when a mild tornado passed over the cabin and interrupted inter-rupted her preparations No damage of a serious character was done and she soon resumed her preparations to go to town She finally reached the stage in which she was to assume her bonnet This was in her estimation a particularly fine one surpassing that of her neighbors and she kept it in a bandbox except when it was taken out to do duty at church or in town She now went to the bandbox and discovered to her great surprise that the box was open and the bonnet gone There was no sign of It anywhere Her husband denied having meddled with it and there was no one else about In a state of great perplexity she sat down to colcct her wits when she happened hap-pened to see a brilliantly colored ribbon dangling from the great flue over the fireplace fire-place Instant investigation followed and she soon drew out her muchloved bdnnet none the worse except for soot and ashes The mild tornado had carried the air up through the flue with just sufficient force to open the light bandbox and take its treasure along to the chimney where it was caught by some projection and held until found DUSTCOLUMNS What are called tornadoes seem to beat I be-at least five different sorts of phenomena but with no sharp line of distinction between be-tween them The first is a slight phenomenon really a dust column j but occurring at a place where dust columns are not familiar it is called by another name Such was probably prob-ably the character of the tornado photographed pho-tographed at Garnett Kan in 18S4 They are much like some waterspouts TWISTERS The second is the real tornado or twister It is oharacterized by a funnel fun-nel hanging down from the clouds It has been photographed several times and sketched many times but the pictures of it are by no means reliable The conditions condi-tions under which the photographs and pictures are made are not favorable for good work besides the temptation to exaggerate and to piece out imperfect pictures seems to have proved irresistible These are the true tornadoes and most of the facts given here relate to them DEREOHOES The third form appears rather as horizontal hori-zontal than as vertical whirls They appear to be what Dr Hinrichs has called derechoes from derecho straight and advance in the form of a horizontal roll of dust The front extends ex-tends in length as they advance so that the territory they pass over is fanshaped instead of the strapshaped area of the tornadoes proper This form may do some damage by overturning trees or breaking off their limbs and by unroof ing barns scattering flocks distributing hay cocks or wheat shocks over the neighboring country but they are not nearly so destructive as the second form The derechoes pass by insensible grada tions into thunderstorms and severe types of these are sometimes called torna does or cyclones WINDRUSHES The fifth form is what may be called a vindrushthat is a little narrow gale Sometimes several windrushes travel parallel to each other at a distance of a few furlongs apart This seems to have been the true character of the violent windstorm that crossed the city of Wash ington November 23 1891 and demol ished an unfinished building killing one man WREN TO EXPECT TORNADOES The tornado occurs at the hottest time of the day and in the hottest season of the year They are especially likely to occur when the temperature is unseasonably warm amid the air very moist f They are f most usual when the air is calm close7 murky still hot afternoons are the most favorable for them They occur in all temperate latitudes where the air is not too dry England France Germany and China have their tornadoes There is also a tropical storm called tornado common on the coast of equatorial West Africa The United States has the reputation of producing the most destructive tornadoes and also of having the greatest number TORNADOES IN THE TORNADO BELT The home of the tornado in this country coun-try is the comparatively flat region from the hundredth meridian to the Alleghany mountains They are at least common in the northern and southern parts of this belt and they sometimes occur to the east of the Alleghanies It is not easy to say what part of this region is most afflicted It can be safely said however that tornadoes generally J J I i A C I 1 > > iJ 1 > J O I = A = = = f d iY i I Tornado photographedat Garnet Kansas Kan-sas April 1 1884 2Water spout at Toulon France May 1883 begin in the spring near the southern edge of this area and gradually creep northward WIIAT TO DO IN TORNADOES Tornadoes travel in a northeastward direction di-rection and leave a path a few rods wide by a few miles long The danger is greater on the south side of a tornado than on the north side because there the speed of advance twenty twen-ty to forty miles an hour is added to the speed of the whirl in the tornado When a tornado actually comes which though not probable is always possible the proper thing to do is to run northward north-ward if there is time and it will pass to the south run south or southeast if it passes well to the north take to the cellar cel-lar if it is not certain where it will go The collar is the safest place in all cases and its west wall or southwest corner is the safest part of it Tornadoes generally occur to the south of a general storm generally rather east of southrarely west The winds flow into a lowthatis an area of low barometer ba-rometer in a spiral direction but sometimes some-times a low takes on an elongated form or has an extension southward In this case the cold inflowing winds from the northwest are likely to meet the warm and moist winds in an area extending extend-ing southward or southwestward from the center of the low This area is sometimes narrow and the line advances like a rank of soldiers across the country from west to east with hot close moist air in front and cold fresh drier air behind be-hind It is along such a line that thunderstorms thunder-storms derechoes windrusnes and tornadoes tor-nadoes are most likely to happen This may be called the critical line of the low In some it is well marked and NOI I I L south DUST STREAMS IN A DUST STORM its passage unmistakable in others it can be located on tho weather map but would not be noticed by people generally instill in-still others and they are the most numerous nu-merous no trace of a critical line can be detected THE WEATHER BUREAU DONT KNOW It may be well to state some things we dont know We dont know exactly the mechanism of a tornado but it is probably a drainage drain-age of air upwards the whirling movement move-ment resulting from an unequal inflow from different directions We do not know where they originate but it is probably ip the lower cloud layer We do not know thatsunpots have anything any-thing to do with them and there is no evidence that anything outside the earth plays any part in making them We do not know that electricity makes them though they often but not always al-ways show remarkable electric phenomena I phenom-ena enaWe do not know that tornadoes are increasing I in-creasing in number but we do know that I thearea in which they occur is becoming more thickly settled and that the art of I reporting news is constantly growing inefficiency in-efficiency and completeness There is one thing we do know about I tornadoes and that is that the dancer to any person meeting death or injury from them is extremely small That of meeting I meet-ing death by lightning small as it is is twentv times as great That of meeting death by railway travel is much greater yet and that from driving a horse and carriage is still greater |