The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-04-03
THE CYCLON Z.
ere long.

The storm of Thursday evening and Fri
day morning in the central portion of the
continent must be regarded as cyclone.
though cyclones do not generally occur nj
this season Of the year. but more frequently
toward midsummer, when the iOrrid heat
on the Staked Plains leads 10 meteorological
disturbance. The wind appears to have
arisen in the region on the west bank of the
Mississippi. somewhere between the 321 and
seth parallels of latitude. We first hear of
IT in the northern tier of counties in Colo
RADIO on the JuleSberg cut off of the Union
Pacific, and at Cheyenne in Southern Wy
oming and almost simultaneously it en-
tered Southern Kansas. The press reporter
says it came from the Indian Territory. but
as there is no news from Western Kansas,
it may have crossed over from Colorado.
These cyclones, however, sometimes are
broad In diameter. and split into currents
which pursue nearly parallel lines, embrac-
ing among them wide Swath.
In Kansas it crossed Barker, Sumner and
Butler counties. eXpending its chief force in
the latter, where it wrecked two towns
Towanda and Augusta-and wreaked de-
vastatiOn on the Atchison- Topeka line !;
thence it struck northeasterIy to Kansas
City, Leavenworth, Lawrence and Atehi
W W "A
Northern Nebraska and Western Missouri,
| and finally its last mischief is reported from
Chieago, where houses were blown down
| and lives lost. From this point it has not
thus far been traced. Thus its course APP
| pears TO have been a few points north of
east, which Is nearly at right angles to the
general course of the Billiards that origi-
nate at Manitoba aad Assiniboia.
What is known of the laws which govern
the distribution of areas of low pressure
and high pressure will be found in the text
books on meteorology. The information
they contain is not satisfying. 1t is rather
collection of facts than a definition OF
laws. By and by, no doubt, we shall learn
the principles which govern continental
cyclones. At present We can only record
their phenomena.
A gale in which the air travels at the rate
| Of sixty miles an hour is so common an oc
currenee that it attracts little attention and
few people realize that such gales are often
more destructive than earthquakes. Cali
fOnia is spoken Of in the East as
land of earthquakes. and the dread of
them frequently frightens people away
from this coast. But all the earth
quakes which have occurred in this State
since the American occupation have de-
stroyed fewer lives and less property than
are destroyed every decade in the prairie
grain States by cyclones These terrible
phenomena wreck a town as a typhOon
wrecks ship. They unroof buildings, blow
down walls, level churches and factories and
Kill every one who is in the way of the fall
ing bricks and timbers. The force of the
wind cannot be realized by those who have
not observed its effects. In Iowa the path
of a recent cyclone lay through forest of
young trees. Every tree-they were from
two TO four inches in diameier-was broken
off near the ground. OF course few edifiees
constructed by the hand of man could stand
against so mi hty force. Houses. barns,
fences and growing crops must go down be-
fore it as child'S sandcastle goes down be-
fore a rushing breaker.