448 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. JULY, 1919
In &p open country, which is characteristic of most o
Kansas, a tornado cloud can be seen for miles and there is ortunity to take refu e when it occurs in the
far-famed “c clone cellar,” which is a cave near a resi-
fruits and vegetables. Next in frequency of use for refuge is the southwest corner of the cellar or basement of a frame house. There are elements of danger in this, however, as, should the house be blown away, the cellar is likely to be partially filled with debris blown in with great violence. Instances. have been reported where persons have survived by 1 ng down in a ditch or shallow
the arms about it: In all thde cases there is dan er from
air is generally a e d during such a storm; also a tree is likely to be uprooted if it IS near the center of a storm path. The freakish occurrences that result from these stornls will tax the credulity of a person who has never seen them. Undoubtedly there is the usual tendency to esaggerate them, but after examing the wreckage a person is inclined to believe almost any story that is told. The often-recited instances of straws bemg blown with such violence they are left sticking in the bark and even in the wood of 8. tree or fence post have to be seen in order to
1 be a preciated. Chickens are sonietinies striplied of their
if near efiou h the vortes of the cloud for that to happen.
An instance 5l as been related on creditable authority of a dresser being smashed to khdling and its iiiirror carried some distance and set down against a fence without bein cracked; Jso of a window sash being blown from a raif . way depot, which was demolished, and lald down on an adjoining lawn with a heavy iron scale weight on it with- out the lass bein broken. A glass jar of fruit from a
and picked up later in perfect condition. The writer has known of an instance where a well-built schoolhouse was torn into small pieces and large elm trees about it up- rooted, yet .a small coal shed among the trees and a short distance from the schoolhouse escaped with only one board missing. It is interesting to note that several people who had vainly tried to get into the schoolhouse for shelter from the storm had taken refu e in this coal shed and
noted in reading over the accounts of these storms is the number of almost miraculous escapes. Unes lahiable
that have come to the attention of the writer might be re eated at great length. !bornado paths seem to be almost entirely indepenclent of the topography of a country, PO ular opinion to the contrary notwithstandmg. J t is o P ten said of a town which has never been vkited by one that It owes its im- munity to bein in a valley, but the tornado of June 5,
Topeka, mowing down trees on the steep slo e of the high
demolishing the little town of Elmont, which is on the lee side of a high bluff in the valley of Halfcreek. Lightning is sometimes erronequsly sajd never to strike twice in the same place, but this is certainly not true of a tornado. The little town of Codell, in Rooks County, Kans., in the western part of the State, was struck by a
t y :d y aytinie 0% e most conmon an d effective shelter is the
dence, artia 91 y underground, with its top covered with soil an Ip comnionly used for dairy products and storing
excavation, or s!mply on t F e lee side of a tree and locking
fl@g pieces of timber or other objects with w E ich the
feat I: ers and left alive, though more often they are killed,
shelf in t %i f s same epot was blown a considerable distance
escaped uninjured. One of t fl e remarkable features
and almost unbehevable occurrences similar to t P ie above
1917,’ crossed d e Kansas Kiver Valley a few miles above
bluff as it descended into the south side of t g e valley and
I CIimStolOglcal Data, Kansas Section, July, 1917.
tornado on May 25 for three years in succession, each storm coming a t approximate1 the same hour of the da
have been eyewitnesses of tornadoes, but photographs of . the cloud are esceedingly rare. Usually one IS so ab- sorbed in watching the unusual sight or in gettin to a
too late. The views acconipanying this article were col- lected by the writer in connection with an investigation of these storm in Kansas that has extended over a period of 12 years and the sources from which they have been received leave no doubt as to their authenticity.
g.‘ It is.not a t all unusual to iz id persons in Kansas w o
place of safety that a camera is not thought. of unt 4 it is
NOTE ON TORNADOES.*
In a “Note on Tornadoes,’’ Lieut. J. Logie, aimed a t showing that no convection currents are capable of pro- ducing tornadoes of the intensity claimed for some of these storms. The author com uted the difference of
and that outside. For a tornado havlng a pressure reduction of 50 millibars a t the surface the mean tem- perature difference was found to be ‘73’ A if the tornado estended to 5 kin. (16,000 feet), loo A if it extended to
10 kni., and 5 O A if it estended to.15 km. From the known values of the lapse rate of saturated air, it follows that under conditions of maximum instabilit a saturated
duce a tornaclo of this intensity. Since such instabdity rarely occurs, and in addition ascending currents of sat- urated air are usually everywhere penetrated by descend- ing masses of cooler air, even a tornado of this intensity is unlikely to be so produced in natural conditions.- Symods Metl. Mag., July, 1.919, p. 67:
temperature between the air in t 1 e center. of the tornado
ascending current not less than 8 km. hig z might pro-
A LOCAL STORM AT ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD., JULY 6, 1919.
n y h 0 NEUMER.
The hot spell of early July came to a close at Aber- deen, Md., with a thunderstorm niarked by heavy rain- fall, and high winds which wrecked a Handley-Page-aero- plane standing on the aviation field. The maxlmuni temperature for the 3d was 93OF.; the 4th, 94OF.; and the 5th, 94OF. The iiiinima were successively 5g°F, GGOF, G ~O F ., and ?’?OF., the last being in the night of the 5th and 6th. During the 5th and 6th of July, the sur- face winds were southeast, very warm and moist. At 2:15 p. m. (75th meridian time) of the 5th there was a west wind a t an altitude of 3,000 meters. On Sunday morning, the Gth, the surface wind was southeast, but veered rapidly with altitude until at 1,700 meters it was coniin from the west. These west winds aloft were probafly potentially colder than those at the surface, and in passing over the warm southerly wmds formed a decided temperature gradient. Cumulus clouds developed on the morning of the 6th, and early in the afternoon covered about half the sk .
wind suddenly veered from south to west, backing to southwest’at 4 :40 p. m. and risin from 8.5 to 30 milee per
heavy stratus clouds. Rain began falling at 4:43, the temperature suddenly dropped from 82OF. to 65’F., and
The sun became obscured a t 225. At 3:30 p. m..t g e
hour. At the same time the s f y became overcast mth
1 Climatological Data, Kansas seetion, July, 1819.
*Roy. Meterological Soc., June 18,1918.