396 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW AUGUST, 1924
A FURTHER NOTE ON THE LORAIN, OHIO, TORNADO OF JUNE 28
By B. M. VARNEY
[Weather Bureau. Washington. Sept. 11. 19241
Sup lementing the account of the Lorain tornado publded in the June REVIEW, we are able, through the courtesy Of the E)l,gineering News-Reeord, to reproduce the diagrams Is herewith. Previous report describes the area &ma ed as tapering from a wide west end at the bore of Lake %fie to nothing beyond the eastern end of the city- on th basis of a detailed survey, confirms &is. Figure 2
effectively shows an interpretation of the reason for the observed shape of the area, on the assum tion of a
” it nlove eastwnrd’
Fhis is a t Variance with the Stat,ement of an observer witbin the city, quoted in the June REVIEW, describing the ‘( perfectly formed, funn&baped cloud, wit.h it3 flowing or waving ,aacefdy from it, while the larger part of the cloud W ~S revolving very fast and increming however* witrh the account of the experience of those on hoard the
yacht observations, in the Enpineering News-Record, m
$allows:
The storm has been traced from Sandusky, about 30 miles west
of Lorain, to Avon village, about 20 miles east of Lorain. After the storm had reached Bandusky i t apparently descended and waa at its lowest point between Lorain and Sandusky, in Lake Erie. As it proceeded eastward and reached the shores of Lake Erie in the yicinity of Lake View Park (Lorain) it started to rise across Lorain. When the storni reached the easterly limits of the cit) i t was at such an elevation that no damage was done on the surface
Oftheearth-
From a study of the devastated area within the limits of Lorain, it is very apparent that the storm was of the usual funnel shape,
There is 110 ot,her collceivable shape which wbuld leave a path 6,000 feet wide at the westerly limits of the city, and 500 feet wide at the easterly limits, which path uniformly contracted between the two points. And there is 110 way that a funnel-shaped tornado could leave srrcli a path without gradually rising or falling in the directioil, pspectively, of the smaller or larger area. * * *
After survcping the types of [structural] failures i t is found that, in general the esploding buildings lay both along the center line
Fi ure 1,
3 rising Of
it grew nearer-” It is in
FIG. 1.-Map of Lorain. Ohio, showing path 01 tornado, June I, 1W. (Reproduced by courtesy of the Engineering News Record)
Osuyichee, who “saw a very black cloud estimated at one-half mile wide a t the water and much wider a t the top.’’ The Onuichee became involved in the storm about 7 miles west of Lorain. The zone of danmge
where the cloud came on shore is reported in the Eizgineer- in.g News-Record as being some 6,000 feet wide. Though tornadoes frequently display an estraordinnry bo nnd- skip motion as they progress, it seems uillikeh t, K at in 7 miles the form of this tornado would chan e from that.
at the water,” to n funnel ‘;with its tail flowing,” and back again to the truncated cone 6000 feet wide at. the ground. It is possible that the observer first quottxl saw a whirl secondary to the main doud. ives .his
of 8 truncated inverted cone “about one-h. 9 f niile wide
version of the occurrence, with conclusions f rom his Mr. C. C. Miller, city engineer of Lorain,
of the storm and along the outer edges. This would seem to indicate a [partial] vacuum extending through the the center of the whirling mass of air and one iniinediately outside of the whirling mass.
It will be noted in Figure 1 that the houses in the westerly section of the ritzy were moved practically all in the same direction. This is due to the larger diameter of the storm at this point. On the easterly side of the city, where the diameter was small, the tail of the tornado alone was the effective part. Here the buildings were moved in nearly every direction.
The proof that the storm was a whirling mass of air is shown by the fact that furiiiture and smaller buildings were first thrown to the north and immediately houses and buildings were demolished by a stronger wind coming from the north. The wind when moving in the same direction as the storm was very much ‘more intense than when the wind traveled in a direction opposite to t,liat of the storm.
1’ Eng. News-Record, 00, no. 5, July 31. 1024, pp. 19&191.
AUGUST, 1924 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW 397
Tne item of greatest interest in the above quotation is that regarding the possibility of a partial vacuum esisting in connection with the periphery of the whirl, and the- sug eation that it may be suficiently low to cause
ident.ical? Mr. Miller offers the comment below, with Figure 3 in illustration of it. The possibility that such a condition may accompany tornadoes has, it is believed, not hithert,o been sug ested, and is therefore presented exp P osive effects. In reply to a query as to whethes the for t.hc consideration o K our readers:
Ys3. Z.-Dingrsmmstic cross sections of the Loraln r.ornsdo.showlngrelation otdecre+5ing $rea a t the enrlh’s wrhw to lhe rise 01 tl~efunnel c.loml. (Reproduced by courtesy 01 the Engrnrcrinp 3 fws Record)
Referring to the print, Figure A [not reproduced. It depicts
in which the houses were daniaged on t.110 outer edge and also in the center. The \sralls \vcre I>ulged outward or blown comr>letely
vacuum and the border area wore types of structural failure in both the contra1
indicate practical Certainty that the Causes were also
far identica damage by outward bulging of walls.--B. M. V.] shows the method
out, showing of cours3 the presencte of a vacuum. * * * -There were a large number of houses dainnged in the same manner along the edges of the storm’s path. It does not seem to me that a
vacuum at the outer edge of the storm’R path would be unusual or impossible. If there is a condition which would produce an increased pressme, there would also exist an area in which the pressure would be decreased. The cause of the vacuum in the center of the storm is of course due to the centrifugal force) and the outer vacuum, I believe, is due to the difference in veloclty of the two volumes of wind. Figure 3 shows * * * a oondition which would he favorable for a vacuum along the line whioh separates the two winds traveling a t a different rate of s eed.
the storm, that it would necessarily be very narrow.
Pressure Pressur8
Fio. 3.-Conditio1u of wind and pressure in relntion to the suggested portid vacuuin at I that if exists On the Outer e& Of
edge of tornado. (C. C. A~Illlrr)
NOTES, ABSTRACTS, AND REVIEWS
SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL RADIATION
SA-/. 6-2 (0 4p.) By -4. .&NosTn6u
(Reprinted from Sciencc Abstracts, Aug. 8, 1924, 5 3~x3)
Continuous records of thc total radiation received from the sun and sky have been obtained at Stockholm since July, 1922. From these the annual and daily variation of the radiation received may be obtained, and ns the direot solar radiation ma be com uted from the time of
fused radiation, is known. The total amount of radia- tion received during the day, Qq, niny be expressed in the =Q,, (0.25 + 0.75s) , if Qo is the a.inount on n per- fectly form: c ? ear day, and S is the time of sunshino espressed as a fraction of the greatest possible time. The total radiation received is a minimum in the afternoon of days when the sky is less than half-covered with cloud, and a
sunshine, the variation, T I 0th of t ?l e direct and the dif-
a* Roy Met’l Sw. Jour April 192-4 5) : l!!l-I%. Report to the InternatlonJ Com-
mlasion ?or Solar Research on A’ctlndmetric Investlgationu of Solar and Atmwpherir Radfstlon.
1402G24t--3
maximum in the afternoon of overcast, or nearly over- cast, days; this is due to the operation of convection.
The nocturnal radiation has been measured at stations where the tern erature ranged from -3 O O C. to +30° C.
black surface a t a temperature between these limits may be divided into three groups of waves: (1) About 25 per cent of the radiation asses through the atmos here without absorption, anxis independent of the thic L em
of the atmosphere and the amount ‘of water va or it contains; (2) about 50 per cent is totally absorbe f by a
thin layer of the atmosphere, probably in the lowest 30
meters at ordinary vapor pressures; (3) about 25 per
cent is subjected to a variable absorption, depending
chiefly on the amount of water vapor present.-A. W. L.
The results o E tained show that the radiation from a