Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1899-08-30
TRAITS OF T0RNADOES.
TITS oIFFlcULTToFoREcAsTWH WHERE
ONE WILL STRIKE.

| The Use of Underground heIuses'
That tornadoes of terrible violence
are now frequent in the prairie region
of the middle west is fact made
lamentably evident by dispatches com
ing daily from that part of the coun-
try. The other fact, that reports OF
such storms reached us but rarely
few years ago and were next to un-
heard of within the memory of men
by no means old, might easily be
taken by good many people as indi-
eating that climatic conditions are
undergoing an unfortunate change,
the result of which is marked in
crease in the number, or at least in
the force, of these little cyclones.
There is probably no basis for this
theory, and every reason to believe
that the winds blow across the grassy
plains now much as they always have
done. When these plains were empty
except for few thousand Indians
and few hundred white hunters, the
doings of tornadoes naturally went
unrecorded, and the havoc they
worked was of no particular conse-
quence. The vast majority OF them
formed, ran their brief course, and
were dissipated without encounterlng
human habitations or even human
beings. At present there is hardly
ten-mile square in the whole west
that does not contain its little village,
or at least group of farm buildings,
and only in comparatively rare cases
can tornado follow q course where
| it will do no serious harm. Of course
the fertile lands where this danger ex-
lists will not be abandoned because OF
it, and sooner or later some effective
means of protection for life, if not for
property, will be devised and used.
Sudden as is the tornado's formation
and rapid as its motion, both are gov
erned by laws already more or less
we'll understood, aud wholly within
the domain of scientific investigation.
Were sufficient number Of trained
meteorologists to take up the subject,
the result of their labors almost GER
tainly would be the establishment of
system of warnings sufficiently
timely to permit everybody imperilled
by any particular tornado to gain an
underground refuge constructed on
plans like OF better than those now IN
use. Whether it will ever be prac-
ticable to construct buildings of such
strength aud form as to withstand the
pressure of tornado is more than
dubious question, but even that is not
beyond the range of possibility.
Discussing the awful disaster in
Wisconsin, Professor e. B. Garriott
of the weather bureau, Washington,
says that when people see funnel
shaped cloud coming they should
throw open every door and window in
their houses and then wait for the
storm to pass over.
"Your furniture will probably be
damaged by the heavy rain that usu-
ally accompanies tornado" he says,
sbut your house will not be carried
into the next county nor torn to pieces
by the fury of the winds. The veloc-
ity OF the wind causes vacuum in
the atmosphere. When the cloud
reaches house with all its doors and
windows shut the four walls of
the building must give way in that
vacuum or the house is lifted from it's
foundation and is carried with the
wind. When the destructive cyclone
visited st. Louis a few years ago
many large and substantial houses
were blown down. In the path of the
storm were many frail houses and
sheds. These places escaped without
the loss of shingle. The numerous
openings permitted the air to escape
freely. On the other hand, where
the buildings were large and securely
closed the confined air caused de-
struction. There was similar incl
dent Just outside Chicago few years
ago. There storm wreckeda large
barn. Within few feet of the demol-
ished structure was workshop and
corncrib which escaped without
damage.
cit is difficult to forecast tornadoes
or, rather, to predict where one will
strike. 1t is like attempting to fore
tell where lightning will 'hit.' The
only thing to be done when tornado
visits your neighborhood is to throw
open the doors and pray that the
storm centre will not strike, your
neighborhood. The chances of escape
about equal those of destruction. The
storm may hit or miss you. 1t is
purely matter Of chance.
1.-The northwest has Jared as we'll
this year as any other section in the
matter of destructive storms,' con-
tinued DR.. Garriott. "That section
has been favorite stamping ground
for tornadoes. These centres are
caused by the contact of warm air and
cold air, which generally meet in Min
nesota, southern Wisconsin, Illinois
ana Michigan. The reports ofstorms,
as may be expected, increase yearly
as the population in the northwest be-
comes more dense. Heretofore the
storms have swept over the section for
yeas and years and nothing was heard
of their severity while their force was
spent upon trees and plains. Now, as
cities and towns are being built every
few miles, the path of the storm is OBJ
structed by houses, which cannot be
destroyed without the reading public
learning of it.
s'Tornadoes travel from west to
east and are more frequent in the
northwest and middle west, where
there are miles of prairie. In the win
ter the storms form on the Pacific
coast and in the gulf states. The
summer tornadoes come ont of the
Rocky mountain regions and are mild
until they come in contact with the
warm air of the valley states. The
combination of the cold air in the