Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-05-25
Tie Tornado Season.
From the st. Louis Republican.

Now that the tornado season has fair
ly opened the scientists are again Mt
work investigating the phenomena with
a view to gain useful information.
Something new is learned about these
dread visitations every year, and though
it seems probable that it may at some
time be possible to foretell their coming,
it is difficult to understand how the
warning is to be turned to any practical
account. The track of a tornado is gen.
orally narrow and not by any means in a
straight line, though it usually progress
ses in n general direction from the
westward to the eastward. The signal
service last year published a statement
Of facts reported concerning 600 lorna
does that have occurred within the
present century. The list includes all
concerning which authentic information
could be obtained prior to 1882.
From this statement it appears
that the average width of the path
of destruction is 1855 feet. The storm
cloud u n forward with a velocity of
from twelve to sixty miles per hour,
while the wind within the whirling vor-
400 miles per hour, sometimes attaining
the rate of 500 miles. June is the month
in which they are most prevalent, and
they occur more frequently in April
than July and in May and September.
than in August. Kansas is more fire.
quently visited than any other State,
s1xty-tWo having been reported there in
twenty-five years. Illinois has had fifty
four in twenty-seven years. Missouri
had forty-four from 1914 to 1881; New
York has had thirty-fve since 1881;
Georgia thirty-four since 1904; Iowa had
tn rty-one from 1S54to 1881; Ohio twenty
three from 1923 to 1881: Indiana twenty
seven from 1852 to 1880. States inter-
mediate between those named have been
visited more or less frequently, and the
range of these destructive storms ex-
tends over the Territories to the Pacific
ing included in the list. How one
should act to take advantage Of any
warning that might be given is a very
hard question to answer. With a strom
rushing forward at forty miles all
hour and no one able, even though
he knew it to be coming, to pre-
dict what part of a whole country
1t would strike, what can be done? II
its exact path were known a few minutes
would suffice to escape to side or
the other, but this can never be foretold.
1t sometimes happen that the approach
of the storm cloud is distinctly seen. In
such cases it is the custom in rural dis.
tricts to take refuge in cellars or to lie
down in bitches or burrows of plowed
fields, but even when these precautions
are taken they often fail to afford pro.
lection, for the eccentricities of the hur.
ricane are such that no place is safe. 1t
is sometimes possible to run away from
the storm as it approaches, its track be-
ing so narrow, and for guidance in this
respect the signal service lays down ,,the
following general rules: 1t may be taken
as probable that the centre of the vor.
tex is moving east. The aim should be
to get as far as possible from the ..centra
track. If the storm cloud is seen in the
southwest, the observer should run t.
northward. Fiji appears to the nortl
of west, he should move to the south
ward. If very close and directly to the
west, the observer should run to the
southeast. OF course the vortex is liza
BILE to swing across from side to side witt
great rapidity and thus render the etfor'
to escape more dangerous than it woult
have been to remain still, but the direc
tons are given as the best to be followed
on the doctrine Of chances.