134 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. MAY, 1908
where the storm struck the ground. On account of darkness,
no funnel-shaped oloud was observed, tho a loud, roaring noise
was heard as the storm past. At Fort Deposit 2 persons were
killed, 22 were injured, 50 buildings valued at $50,000 were
destroyed, and other damage done to the extant of $30,000.
At Shiloh Church, a small settlement 7 miles northeast of
Montgomery, 2 frame buildings were partially destroyed, and
other damage done, aggregating about $3,000.
A tornado occurred at Tarenturn, a small settlement in the
southeastern part of Pike County, Ala., at 1:30 a. m., April 30,
1908. The track of this tornado extended about 3 miles in a
northeasterly direction and was about 400 yards wide. No funnel-shaped cloud was observed tho the storm was accom-
panied by a rumbling noise which was immediately followed
by a heavy downpour of rain and hail. No one was killed, but
10 people were injured, 25 frame buildings valued at $25,000
were destroyed, and other damage done to the extent of
$10,000. The hail was quite heavy and caused considerable
additional damage to crops.
TORNADO AT DORA AND BERGENS, &A., APRIL a4,
1908.
By W. F. LEHMAN, Observer. Dated'BirnJngbam, Ala. M a y 25, 1908.
The first of the tornadoes that occurred in northern Ala-
bama on April 24, 1908, developed in southeastern Walker
County during the early afternoon, and at about 2:40 p. m.,
central time, destroyed the settlement of Bergens on the
Northern Alabama Railroad, 28 miles northwest of Birming-
ham. In its early stage the storm crost a sparsely settled
district, advancing in a northeasterly direction and causing
havoc over a track three-quarters of a mile wide. I t was not
until the storm WBS joined, about a mile southwest of Bergens,
by another black mass of clouds, smaller in extent and mov-
ing in a more easterly direction, that it developed its greatest
violence. Continuing on a northeast course the torndo
ravaged a territory nearly a mile wide, but encountered few
dwellings until it struck the hill ranges of Dora. Here the
path of destruction narrowed down to about 3,000 feet.
Dora is a town of about 2,000 inhabitants and rather es-
tended limits, partly situated in the valleys formed by three
hill ranges running southeast-northwest. The business por-
tion of the town is built alongside the railroad track between
the central and northern hills, both about 160 feet high, while
the southern valley is occupied by farmers and miners. South-
east of the hills, within earshot of the sheltered Dora habita-
tions lies Bergens.
The claim of the Dora people that the hills saved their town
from destruction induced the writer to spend a day and a half
in exploring the storm track around Dora. The result is em-
bodied in the accompanying diagram.
Fig. 1 shows that had the path of destruction remained
as wide as it was to the southwest it would have embraced the
whole eastern half of Dora, and also that it again widened out
to its earlier width when the storm past beyond the northern-
most of the Dora hills. As it was, however, the central path
past over Bergens, while on the west side the path of destruc-
tion narrowed to one-half its original width so that only on
the Dora hilltops were trees uprooted. The eastern side of
the path of destruction continued uninterrupted B half mile
wide.
On the forenoon of the 24th the weather had been cloudy
and squally. A slight shower occurred shortly after noon.
The uniform, light gray appearance of the sky an hour before
the storm, set people to wondering what would happen next.
Some predicted rain, but there was no sign of rain. The un-
usual weather conditions were the topic of conversation every-
where. Some one suggested a coming tornado, tho he had
never experienced one, and for want of a better explanation
of the prevailing conditions this idea was generally adopted.
But the people were wofully ignorant as to the character of a
tornado and the direction from which to expect it. Had they
known, probably no lives would have been lost. From unob-
structed viewpoints the meeting of the two clouds had been
observed half a minute before the storm arrived, but most of
the people of Bergens can only recollect seeing the cloud com-
ing, rushing to their houses for shelter (there were no tornado
cellars), and having their houses blown down; all this hap-
pening within the space of fifteen seconds.
FIG. 1.-Path of storm thru Dora and Bergens, Ala.
The cloud is generally described as a dense coal-black mass
with a whitish top, reaching to the ground. To some its
central mass, between the top and the ground, seemed to re-
volve around a horizontal axis. Some observers noticed the
cloud had a distinct funnel shape as it retreated into the dis-
tance. The tornado was attended by lightning and hail, some
hailstones measuring three-quarters of an inch in diameter.
The ralh was light until some minutes after the cloud had
past, when a heavy shower of short duration occurrod. The
roar caused by the storm was so deafening that no mere sound
of crashing buildings could be heard.
Of the first group of ten houses, situated within 500 feet of
the depot, eight were totally destroyed, including the depot,
while one building almost in the center of the group escaped
without any damage, and a substantially built two-room
house was thrown bodily on the railroad track 75 feet away
from its foundation. Farther on all the dwellings, the store,
and the church of Bergens were razed to the ground. Of
ten empty box cars standing on a side track of the Empire
Road three were overturned and the other seven were blown
toward the center of the storm track, some heavy parts being
carried 100 feet away to a low hill. I n the southeastern por-
tion of the path all the tall trees were either blown down or
snapt off at from 10 to 20 feet above the ground, and every
house sustained heavy damage. At Bergens six persons were
killed outright and two died of their injuries on the same day;
the other injured number sixteen. Twenty-seven houses were
totally destroyed and fifteen more or less damaged. The
property destroyed was valued at about $50,000.
From Bergens the tornado progressed toward the north-
east, with a path three-quarters of a mile wide. The few
dwellings in its way were badly damaged, and at Old Demo-
crat, a village 4 miles northeast of Dora, several houses w.ere
blown down and two persons were killed.
MAY, 1908.
OBSERVA!LTONS OF A TORNADO NEAR FORT WORTH,
TEX.
By D. 8. LANDIS, Ohserver. Dated Fort Worth, Tex., June 3, 1908.
At 3:05 p. m. on May 29, 1908, a whitish, smoky-looking
bank of clouds loomed up rapidly in the southwest, and within
a few minutes similar banks of alto-cumulus clouds appeared
in the west, then in the northwest. The fore front of each
bank was flanked with whitish, curling, ragged-edged cloud
substance, in appearance like billowy wood smoke from a
distant forest fire. Within a period of five minutes cumulus
clouds lying in the east and northeast began to move as tho
sucked toward one common point on the Sansom ranch due
north of the station, and about 4 miles distant. At this point
a greenish-black cloud-core seemed to develop in the upper
air, then bag downward, oscillate up and down in a careless
rocking manner, drawing nearer and nearer to the earth, but
failing to reach it by about 200 yards. This was the funnel
of the tornado, the point of the funnel being ragged and
misty looking, whirling and trailing inwardly upon itself.
Presently the funnel bellied a little and at once became
constricted to about half its original size immediately
above the bellied portion. Nest the whole cloud mass shot
directly eastward for a distance of half a mile, stopt still,
whirled rapidly for a few moments and then the funnel sepa-
rated entirely at the stricture. The two portions of the funnel
and the accompanying cloud mass now slowly backed, whirling
gently, and again stopt, the tip now descending to the earth
at the point where the funnel had formed. The upper portion
then descended and the two parts of the funnel were reunited,
the in-whirling motion becoming very energetic. Almost
instantly after the union of the funnel portions the storm
took on new electrical activity. Zigzag lightnings played in
and out and about the funnel, which at times seemed like a
great black transparent blood-vessel with the lightning a crim-
son fluid unleashed from the black walls to partially fall away,
only to be grappled again by the darkness and hidden.
A thunderstorm prevailed during the passage of this pecu-
liar oloud, and so continuous was the roar of thunder that one
was at a loss to distinguish whether there were other sounds
than its rolling.
At 3:08 p. m. the tornado center took on immense energy,
and darted furiously toward the northeast, the funnel appear-
ing very rigid and tapering down to a point within 200 yards
of the earth. The funnel was ebony black, save when lit up
by vivid sheet lightning on its east side. At one instant a
spiral of lightning seemed to make two circuits of the funnel
in its passage from the upper heights to the earth, the quiver
of light leaping from the tip of the funnel to the earth. Within
a space of two minutes more the dark funnel retired into the
mother cloud overhead, and was lost from sight. Commotion
in the clouds decreased rapidly, and they soon fell apart and
so dissolved that only a few domes of cumulus clouds could
be seen lying in the northeast, while the west and northwest
sky was calm and cloudless. The whole affair seemed like a
tornado on parade, sweeping the upper heights with threaten-
ing storm-tentacles of wind and mist and lightning, coming
close down to earth as with death-dealing intent, only to re-
pent and hide away from human eyes.
Among the weather features particularly noted were a very
high relative humidity just before and after the storm,
and a light wind from the south before the funnel formed.
The wind direction changed very noticeably to various points
as the storm past. At 3 p. m. the wind was prevailing from
the south, and instantly it switched to the west, then to the
northwest, north, and northeast in the course of the storm
movement. The temperature during the whole storm period
was 84O, but it fell quite decidedly for several hours after the
passing of the clouds. Light rain prevailed at the station
during the storm, also in the immediate vicinity of the tornado
135
funnel, but no hail was reported. No marked wind movement
was noted at the station with the passing of the storm, but
those who were in the immediate vicinity of the funnel report
a high wind from the east, with brisk wind movement from
all points of the compass as the storm was passing. No damage
to person or property was reported, the funnel coming to the
earth for an instant only, and then in a wide pasture, treeless,
fenceless, and houseless. The movement of the cloud for the
few seconds that the funnel touched the earth was toward the
northeast, herbage only showing the disturbance, grasses and
weeds being inclined on the east quarter of the funnel as tho
the wind were whirling from left to right. The herbage in-
clination on the north, northwest, and west showed the same
right to left whirling motion of the wind. At the center of
the path the grasses showed a pulled-together-at-the-top-
influence, as tho suction had been inward and upward. The
storm track visible on the ground was about 30 yards wide at
the widest, and about 20 feet wide at the narrowest point.
The earlier movement, directly eastward and then back to the
starting point, was about half a mile each way, and the final
northeastward movement of the cloud was about 4 miles to
the point of dissolution. No glow was noted in the funnel
or about it, nor any peculiar light, except the lightning,
which varied from blood red to a blue flame like that of
sulfur. No peculiar cloud form was noted, except that the
clouds in the southwest and east elongated and dipt down-
ward at the fore front, becoming torn and scud-like, whitish,
and misty, seemingly rushing down an incline to a steep
valley. With the union of all the clouds from the various
points they changed color from the wood-smoke hue to a
black cloud-core from which point the funnel lowered and the
electrical display seemed to issue.
TORNADOES IN MINNESOTA ON MAY a4,1908.
(Abstract from Climatological Report of the Minnesota Section.)
On the afternoon of May 24, 1908, two tornadoes visited
southern Minnesota following on the warm, sultry weather of
the preceding day. The first tornado appeared at 4:15 p. m.,
3 miles southeast of Imogene, Martin County. It moved
northwestward for about 2 miles along a path 40 rods in
width, destroying $4,000 worth of property and injuring 4
persons.
The second storm formed at 4:30 p. m. in Blue Earth
County, 25 miles northeast of Imogene, and traveled slightly
east of north until it crost Lake Ballantyne when it disap-
peared about 4:50 p. m. The path of this tornado was 20 to
40 yards wide. One person was injured and property to the
value of $5,000 destroyed. Detailed accounts of both torna-
does and a map showing the path of the second may be found
on page 36 of the Climatological Report of the Minnesota Sec-
tion for May, 1908, prepared by U. G. Purssell, Section Direc-
tor.-EDIToa.
SEVERE LOCAL STORM IN FLORIDA.
Mr. C. L. Hobbm, cooperative observer of the Weather
Bureau at Blountstown, Calhoun County, Fla., reports that a
severe local storm occurred in the vicinity of his station about
1 o’clock in the afternoon of May 30, 1908. There was a well-
defined pendant funnel-shaped cloud, with rotary winds of
sufficient violence to uproot trees and prostrate buildings.
The storm came from the northwest and moved toward the
southeaet.
Part of Mr. Hobbs’s interesting description is given:
We had just flnished dinner and heard a roaring noise and upon look- ing in a northwest direction we saw the tops of the trees swaying and bending in a terrible commotion. The greatest strength of the storm seemed to be some distance above the earth; however. the funnel dipt down right in the town, wrecked a new building 80 by 30 feet, then shot up to the tree tops and disappeared entirely. There were no trees pros-
trated in any general path; as before stated, the greatest violenoe