The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-05-31


remarkable freaks; people. are lifted
bodily from the ground, carried
through the air amid q shower Of debris
snd set down uniDjured many yards or
many rods away; fence rails are driven
through the sides of buildings, or even
through the trunks of trees as if they
had been shot from a catapult; houses
are lifted from their foundations, whirl-
ed around and set down again with no
more injury than the loss of some plas-
ter and window glass. In the recent
tornado at Racine, in the state of Wis
consin, house containing five persons
is said to have been lifted from its
foundations and carried out into Lake
Michigan.
The characteristics of these storms are
so well marked. and they have occurred
with such frequency during the last two
or three years, that meteorologists have
had good opportunity TO study them.
The result is that the atmospheric phe.
nomenA Immediately preceding lorna
does and the appearances which the sky
presents when the tornado is forming
are pretty well understood, but the
trouble is that warning of their coming
cannot be given long enough in advance
to be of much service. The government
weather officers furnish plenty
of predictions of the approach
of rainy weather and cold waves,
in the season when rainy weather
and cold waves are expected by every
body, but these awful western tornadoes
of whose coming warning is needed, If
1t is ever needed, burst upon populous
towns and thickly settled farming dis
tricts like an enemy rushing from an
ambush. About the only advice the
weather watchers seem able to give the
inhabitants of the threatened regions is
to keep sharp eye on the clouds, and
by all means to dig safe places of ref
uge under ground, where they can seek
shelter with their families and valuables
at moments notice. Perhaps this is
the best of all advice, too. Weather
prophets are not of much account, and
people who expect nothing from them,
but learn to judge the weather for them
selves, generally suffer least from unex-
pected storms.
While tornadoes are very cratic, yet
there are, as experience has shown, GER
! tain regions, notably along the Missis-
sippi and Missouri valleys and in the
neighborhood of the great lakes, where
they are particularly apt to occur. This
Is probably owing to the situation and
form of the country with reference to
the opposing air currents which are con-
cerned in the production of such whirl-
ing storms. Cases have been known in
which the opposing currents pressed
against one another without any extra
| ordinary aerial disturbance until some
popularity in the formation of the land
caused an inequality of pressure, and
thus the tornado sprang into being full
armed, as though it had burst from a
prison.
A great deal of speculation has been
| INDUCED in of late as TO the influence of
extra terrestrial causes upon the earth's
meteorologY. Some persons think a
connection can be traced between the
| periodical return Of the sun spots and
| the prevalence of violent storms upon
the earth. The evidence on this point
has been, so far, conflicting. During
the last two or three years astronomers
have been watching with great interest
the solar storms which recur at inter-
vsis of about eleven years, and which
during 1881 and 1882 and so far this
year have, at times, exhibited extraor-
| binary fury. Whether they, or the
causes which produced them, have
| had any effect upon the earth's weather
| is question that cannot yet be definite
| ly answered. But it is known that they
have made their effects felt upon the
magnetic condition of the earth, and
Il tWlCC last year Tue pT0HhlCuC0LO
| extraordinary outbursts in the sun the
telegraphs were crippled all over the
world. The sun-spot theorists point to
this fact and say that if sun storm can
| cause magnetic needle on the earth To
| tremble and SILVER SIS if shaken bv an
earthquake, fill the heaYens with the
| flaming streamers of the auora. and Grip
| pie the Atlantic cable, 1t may be able to
make its power felt also in the produc-
tion of storms. Others, while admitting
the magnetic Influences of sun storms
upon the earth, pooh pooh the idea thai
they have any influence upon terrestrial
storms. A great deal of careful obser
walton and discussion will be needed
before it can be decided who is right
In the meantime the inhabitants of the
| regions where tornadoes are likely to &C.
cur had better let the men of science
fight out the battle alone, and study the
clouds for themselves, not forgetting
that good dug-out is the safest place il
| a tornado.