The Arizona sentinel., 1886-07-10
FACTS ABOUT STORMS.
Results of Study of the TOrnadoes at St
 1 Cloud and WetmOre.i

Results of stuuy or the lorhauoos "' Ss
 Cloud and Wetmore.i
 The Signal Office has been making special study, of the facts reported from the great tornadoes of April IA, by which the ties of St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids, Minn.,zwere nearly destroyed.
 The farthest westerly appearance ot the storm was atAJamestown, D. T. The total path of. the storm was thirty-five miles long, and in its course killed six ty-nine people-and destroyed over S2OC,- GOO worth of property. At the same sam t'me there was storm at Benton, Mills County, Iowa, which proceeded in the same general direction, and passed through dozen towns in the course of one hundred and ten miles. Another parallel storm was noted at Wetmore.
 Kas., and Stella, Neb., and was traced for about thirty miles. Another was reported from Monroe, Mo, about thirty miles long. All these storms happened between five and eight o'clock in the evening. There was uniform pro- gression from west to east, the most eas tern tornadoes occurring four or i've hours later than the western, The sig nal service people are inclined to build theories somewhat different from those accepted with regard to tornadoes. The principal authority on tornadoes Is Prof. Ferrel. He says that when, on account of greater heat, or a.greater amount ot aqueous vapor, the atmosphere at any place becomes more rare than the sur, rounding portion, it ascends, and the surrounding heavier atmosphere flows in below to supply its place, while a counter current is produced above. As the lower strata of atmosphere gen. orally contain a certain quantity of aqueous vapor, which is condensed after rising to certain height, and forms clouds and rain, the caloric gwen out in the condensation produces still greater rarefaction, and doubtless adds very much to the disturbance of equilib- rum, and to the motive powers of storms. The Signal Office finds the following Objections to this theory: They say it demands a more sudden and complete mixing of warm and cool air than can ever take place Tn nature; that there is no such sudden uprush of air due to possible heating by the sun. While the earth's surface may become very hot, vet this intense heat never extends more than a few feet yer t:cally. Balloon ascents demonstrate this. The sun heats a. great. surface ' over the earth, and if Ferrel's theory was correct, there would naturally be cloud formation and storms over large region, whereas storms seem to develop along certain lines from southeast to northeast. and are not general over any large region. Storms are not stationary
 but have a well-defined course, anC move exactly as if propelled by some force as a part of the course of the storm, rather than by successive upset tings of equilibrium, from place tC place. Another fact is, that storms
 generally arise about half past threC o clock in the afternoon, just little after the hottest part of the day, ane work eastward, where it becomes
 coo,cl. If there was to be any upheava
 of equilibrium, owing to the suns heat it would seem that it ought to talk place under the sun and not seven o eight hours after the sun had passed Furthermore, Prof. Ferrers theory re ouires a rarefact on of air immediatel, : in front of the advancing storm while the observation of the Sigma
 Office shows that there is no sucl
 all efaction, but, on the contrary, dense pressure preceding the storm. Tn brief of the Signal Service is that tornado is the extreme development O thunderstorm, accompanied by in
 tenss electrical manifestations and