The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-04-06
LIKE A CYCLONE
Wind GamboIed About Wich-
tia Early Yesterday.
CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE
Greatest Velocity Fifty-Two
Miles an Hoyr
DAMAGE

A young cyclone gamboled about in
the vicinity of Wichita night before last
tearing down fences, blowing down signs
uprooting shade trees, and doing consid-
cradle amount of minor damage wherever
it lit. This gentle Kansas zephyr framed
up in the night long after the good peo-
pie of the town were In bed and it rip
ped and roared and the wind blew a lit
tie and then blew some more all night
long, all forenoon yesterday, and well
up into the afternoon. The velocity of
the wind was the highest that has been
reached in ten years time and at 10
o'clock this morning was stepping along
at the rate Of hfty-two miles an hour.
At 4 o'clock in the afternoon it had
slowed down to thirty-fve miles an hour
and gradually after that to a normal We
locity. The windstorm was escorted by
some thunder and Tightening and a
copious downpour of rain along in the
night when it made it's debut, but the
rain ceased about 2 o'clock and the ball
ance of the engagement was just plain.
simple old style, Kansas blow.
On the West Side the wind had a fair
ly clean sweep. About 100 feet Of the
east side Of the Hess Athletic field was
blown down. This fence was only COM
pleted last fall and was in the best of
condition, but the force of the wind was
so great that sections were lifted from
their posts and braces and thrown
across the street
Mr.. s. F. Woodward has been building
q neat 5-room cottage at 526 Fern ave-
nue.. The frame worn was completed
and part of the siding had been put on.
This building is a total wreck. the tim
Der being broken into kindling wood.
The porch in front of the building at
COL, 603 and COS West Douglas, was blown
down and the debris strewn about the
street, as was the sign board on the
north side of Douglas, just west of the
big bridge,
The fence around the Dold Packing
House was blown down. The Missouri
Pacific depot at Twelfth street was
twisted around little on its foundation.
The whole front of the frame store
building at the corner of St. Francis and
Douglas avenue, was blown out and piled
up in the street.
The plate glass window of Casey &
Garst on North Market street was
smashed into spnnters, signs were blown
down all over the city. A number Of
shade trees were torn UP by the roots.
Fences on South Topeka avenue were
torn down and one man had big ice
box lifted off his back porch and carried
about fifteen feet south and dumped on
the ground. Several cornices were blown
off buildings on North Main street and a
stairway and fence was wrecked in the
rear of 800 North Main
Wind storms like this wind around in
a circle like a coiling wire and this is
the cause of the wind switching around
and blowing from different directions all
the time. The atmosphere is likened to
the water in the ocean in its relation to
the earth and the air currents in one of
these wind storms are constantly hurry
ing toward the point Of lowest pressure
0 rstorm center. There the air is always
ascending.
On this side of the equator in a storm
the wind works in a circle contrary to the
way of the hands of watch and the
wind is always working spiraIly, inward
ly, toward the center, as the storm cen
ter passes from east to west. These
wind storms are probably caused by the
sun shining on the earth's surface from
which snow is being melted and the
motion of the earth is also an adjunct
to the cause.
An ingenious Frenchman invented a
large globe that revolved as the earth !
and put upon it little arrows
on pivots that represented currents of /
air and when the globe was revolved the |
same movements were shown by the ar
rows as is shown by the atmosphere on |
the earth.