The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-07-03
CYCLONES AND ToRNADoEs.
Names Given to Destructive and Singula
Freaks of Nature.
Especial Correspondence.l

tSpcclal correspondence
CHICAGO, June 28.-Although the tele-
graph has already told of some destruo-
ton of property and loss of life from
devastating winds, yet unless this year
proves to be an exception to tho rule
that has obtained during the past decade
the trouble has not yet begun in dead
earnest.
The name "cyclone" has beeu applied
for so many years now to the twisting
storms that sweep across state in day,
leaving dismantled buildings, PROSTATE
forests and bleeding, lifeless bodiesain
their track, that it is probably too late
to effect the general adoption of the
proper title for such atmospheric dis
turbances. Nevertheless it can do no
harm to cali attention to the fact that
the proper word is tornado and not cy-
Clone
a cyclone is % storm, the most active
area of which is OH the outer edge of a
vast circle, ut the center of which there
ls Il region of comparative-som
absolute-calm. Cyclones never form or
travel over the land, as the proper atmos-
pheric conditions never develop there.
They usually form in the gulf of Mexico
and travel from there in IL northeasterly
direction, following almost the same
path as that of the gulf stream. Not in
frequently the western edge of cy-
clone, so formed and SO travelling,
touches the Atlantic and gulf coasts, and
the destructive storms that worked such
havoc in the sea islands last summer
were of this description.
A tornado is whirling, twisting
storm, with its greatest activity at the
center, where also more damage is
wrought than elsewhere. The path of Il
cyclone may be and usually is several
hundred miles broad. The path Of tor
nado is rarely more than mile, and it's
destructive course usually but few rods
wide. In one sense the tornado, in It's
limited path, is far more destructive
than the cyclone, for it sometimes liter
ally pulverizes everything with which it
comes i'll contact. Practically one is as
bad as tho other, for if your house is to
be destroyed it matters not whether it is
torn to bits by IL rapidly gyrating force
like tornado, or blown to fragments by
practically straight wind like cy-
clone, for the arc of the cyclones circle
is SO great that the curvature of the wind
Is not noticeable mt any one place.
While the cyclone is an essentially sea
storm and is never found on land though
its edges sometimes do shore damage. the
tornado is often formed ut sea- where,
however, 1T IS called Il waterspout The
watcrspout is not perhaps SO dangerous
to shipping as the tornado is to buildings
and forests, for it may often he lissipat-
ed by a. shot from cannon, while Il tor
nado's course may not be stopped by this
means.
Another destructive form of wind is
known to the signal service as the hurr-
cane, though hurricanes are often de-
scribed rs cyclones i'll conversation and
newspaper dispatches. The hurricane is
n simple straight wind blowing at a rate
exceeding so miles an hour. In practi-
cal effect it is almost as bad as either the
tornado or the cyclone. for the force of
moving air when it reaches such ter
rife speed as 80 miles an hour, whether
1t be direct, circling or rotatory, is great
enough to destroy houses and blow down
forests.
Tornadoes do not often visit the re-
gions of the Rocky mountains because
of the great altitude there. The height
OF the Allegheny mountains being much
less, tornadoes are not very infreqnent
there. The season of most frequent tor
nadoes i'll the middle Atlantic states is
August and September in the south At
lantic states February, March and April,
and in the west May, June and July
The little whirlwinds, familiar every
where, are not little tornadoes. The
latter come from above and sometimes
do not touch the earth ut all, while the
whirlwinds rise from the earth III every
instance. G. CT. BoLI.Es.