The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1893-04-15

proDaoly fatally injured. GEORGE, one OF
the boys, had his thigh broken. Nc
Mullen's house was totally demolished.
Pleasant Grove school house, southwest
of Odessa, was blown down. This part of
the storm passed on down Davis creek
and was not the MAYHEM tornado
Tabo bridge near Ramey's was blown
down. The destruction to houses, fences,
orchards, barns, stables and fruit is
almost incalculable. 1t is the worst storm
that ever visited Lafayette county.
DEFINITION OF TERMS.
1t is a misnomer to call this whirling,
twisting, devouring destroyer a cyclone.
A cyclone is a vast whirling wind with
almost perfect calm at its center. 1t is
too widespread to be very destructive.
IT. is the rush of n current of air into n
cyclone that makes n tornado. But this
condition alone is not sufficient to make
one There must be a high electrical ten
sion. There must be an atmosphere of
maximum humidity. There must be a
low barometer, and the storm center must
be west OF north. Tornadoes in this lati-
tude are invariably in the southeastern
quadrant of the perimeter of the storm
center.
Cyclones are very frequent. Every
storm of any magnitude with a we'll de-
fined center is a cyclone. The path OF
the cyclone across North America is gen.
orally from northwest to southeast until
the Ohio valley is reached and thence in
the direction of the st. Lawrence valley.
Cyclones like tornadoes follow depress-
ions in a country's topography. The
cyclone is continental-the tornado local.
Last Tuesday all the conditions Of
tornado energy existed in a remarkably
high degree. Yet il the little stream in
his county called Tabo had run in a
northwesterly direction instead OF north
east there would have been no tornado in
Lafayette county. The wind surging
against the mound at MAYHEM may have
been converted into a twister but it
would have gone into the air and passed
overhead harmless had there been no
depression or creek valley for it to find a
pathway in. This is on the principle that
n ball will roll along a trough but not
across a log.
=, GENESIS OF THE TORNADO.
The cyclone first made its appearance
away up in the northwest between
Q'Appelle and Helena, Montana, Monday
evening. Not, however, until it reached
the depression of the Missouri valley did
it begin to develop much energy. By
Tuesday noon it had spread its circles
, from Montana to southern Iowa, with its
center about midway between these
3 points.
AS the great storm moved southwark it
grew in energy, and by six O'Clock its
influence extended from central Montana
to southern Texas, with it's center a little
. west OF central Iowa.
l The wind always blows to the right of a
I storm center, m at this o there was
an abnormally vast energy of winds cir
cling around the center of the storm.
The wind here was strong from the
south by southwest and the pressure
l according to an Aneroid barometer in the
iNTELLIaENcER office $3.50 inches. An
hundred miles west OF here the wind was
I nearly west, at st. Louis 1t was blowing
t from the southeast.
AS the depression increased the rush of
] wind to the swirling storm mass grew in
. velocity. The indraft was intense. No
wonder then when q fierce rush of cleo
I trically charged wind sweeping forward
3 at the rate of sixty miles per hour met
: with an obstacle like the mound at May
5 view, for instance, it was converted into q
. gyrating fury and swept forward a well
developed tornado. Immediately beyond
was the valley of Tabo creek, and into
this depression the roaring monster hurl-
ed itself %devouring everything IL encoun-
ed in it's mad and resistless career.
The INT~ELLIGENcER is indebted to DIR,
j. T.. Tucker, Joh Walker, w. u
Vaughan and Capt. Redd for many points
of valuable information.
= walkers house should be located in
e the next section north, and Wolfe's house
- ,ykara NNollyarlo 40 rnorlyal