Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-14
NO HURRICANE HERE
The Big Storm Has Already Spent
Its Force.
What TIE FORECASTERS SAY
Difference Between a Tornado
and a Cyclone.
ca USE OF d A M A G E
CA USE OF d A M A G E

4 y = > Il " L ~ "A 1h "A " IL
When the weather bureau forecasters
locked over their reports this morning and
sized up the conditions prevailing on the
south Atlantic coast they concluded that
the West Indies hurricane was not as for
miGable as it had threatened to be. In fact,
the forecasters We're of mimi to class IT
with ordinary, good, lusty gulf 'low'
such a one as often comes up the coast
in the summer, bringing northeast winds,
a fair gale of wind on the coast and heavy
rains.
The chances of rurrican reaching Wash
ington we're therefore considered remote.
Only sudden and unexpected development
of strength quite unlikely, would turn the
storm into a hurricane when it reaches
Washington.
There was no doubt in the minds of the
officials that this Florida disturbance was
the original West Indies hurricane, which
has been causing trouble in the Caribbean.
Bet it seemed to have Slipped its trolley
since lis arrival on coasts and was
short G1 power.
No Longer "a Hurricane.
. When the fcrecasters consulted their re-
ports, this morning they located the center
of the disturbaace--no longer hurricane
somewhere of the Florida coast in the vi
cnity of Jacksonville. How far away they
Gid rot know. because they had not heard
from Nassau since Friday. the station
which CDu:G give The n the best idea of the
location Il Ire center. TIE barometer at
JACK 5lI.vtl... his morning showed read
ing OF 1A,t-. That is lew, but E"t dam
gerous. How yer. if il Should ,urn out
that Only the western edge &C the hurri-
cane has :!nI:Hgad upon jackson lie, bring
y ;,t;Itrtr q it wl,Ili h. inter-
estinE 49,. what the center shaws.
The hurricane signals were lowered on
TIE south F,criGd coast this morning but
storm sir.''S were c,Sp-aXed frcT Jackson
vile to NoTtC i. /; was thought likely that
high n3itheas- w..,s would prevail! on the
coast as far north as Cape Henry. Ehares-
ton reported a wind of tErty-two miles an
hour and Savannah of twcnty-siX miles.
1t is raining hard all through the south
this morning and the rain belt Will grad
uaily creep up the coast today. taking in
New England by morning, if not before.
The storm seems now to be out of the
hurricane Glass; was the verdict of the
weather bureau this morning, and may be
classed an ordinary low 1t was said
that the conditions are favorable to the
storm moving rapidly up the coast. There
was high in the region TO interfere with
its progress.
Tornado and Cyclone.
There is a difference between a tornado
and a cyclone or hurricane. The tornado
is ciassed purely local storm of great
intensity and concentrated energy, whose
main destructive effects the result of
the almost incredible velocity of its rotary
winds that blow spirally into and about its
vortex. Though terribly destructive to life
and property. it is at the time the
smallest of local weather disturbances. be
ing limited in duration in the width of its
path and extent of its track. IL one case it
may last but few minutes along track a
few hundred feet wide and mile or so in
length; in another il may persist for hours,
its path several hundred yards in width and
extending from 90 to 100 miles in length.
Its forward motion on its track may vary
from fifteen to thirty to sixty miles an
hour. but this speed is insignificant com
pared with the velocity, of the rotary winds,
which may have Il speed CT 100 miles an
hour and over.
The cyclone is differentiated from all local
storms, whose operations are confined to a
comparatively small region, since it is a
weather disturbance, at its smallest, on a
large scale, and at times reaches a CONT
mental magnitude.
The name is OF technical, not popular,
origin and was first used by Piddington
an English meteorologist, to describe the
tempests Of the Bay of Bengal and other
tropical waters. 1t is a descriptive epithet
and refers to the almost circular movement
of the winds about a common center then
supposed to be the unvarying character
istiCs of those great and destructive storms
that are called "typhoOns' in the eastern
seas ana hurricanes IN the tarlbbcan ana
West Indian waters. The word has been
gencralized in meteorology and is used to
denote one of the two types of atmospheric
eddies into which the circulation of the air
in temperate zones is thrown. These are
cyclonic and the anti-cyclonic.
The Most Destructive.
The most destructive of all cyclones, and,
in fact, the most destructive weather out
bursts known. are the tropica! cyclones,
az leJ of ba
China and japanese waters, the 'hur-
ricanes' of the West Indies and Atlantic
and gulf coasts of the United States.
Though the largest tornado rarely has a di-
ameter of mile the smallest of tropical
cyclones rarely falls below 100 miles in
diameter and its sphere of destructive in
fluence may range from 100 to 600, even to
1000 miles.
So the hurricane which ravaged the West
Indies shows the tropical cyclone may per-
sist for days, travelling thousand of miles
The point of origin for the tenpests that
visit our coast is the eastern Atlantic in
low ATTITUDES. They cross over to the West
Indies, recurve in the Gulf of Mexico, over
east of Florida, and then travel to the
northeast, along the coast line of the
United States, then out into the Atlantic
over Newfoundland sometimes reaching
English waters. s5y that time they have
taken on all the characteristics of cyclone
originating in the temperate zone. The de-
structive effects of the cyclone are the re-
suit of the winds that blow in spirally
about its center. which in the front o. the
cyclone may reach any velocity from sixty
to ninety miles an hour. The low pressure
oil the barometer in the center of the storm
and the terrific winds lift up a tremendous
sea that raises the tides above the normal
and hence through disastrous floods cause
great loss to life and property along the
low-lying coasts. as has been the fate of
the bayou region of Louisiana and the sea
islands of Georgia and South Carolina on
numerous occasions. The rainfall is also
nt aS Siy nd u
Future Course of the Storm
Chief Moore has issued the following
statement:
WEATHER BUREAU
Washington August a.
Storm center moving north off Jackson
vile, Fla: In its future course the storm
will not be of unusual severity although