Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-06-15

Of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Ne
braska, the center of maximum fire.
quency being near the point of union
Of these four States, or about a hun
dred miles east of the geographical cen
/ ter of the United States is the tornado
! area. According to the reports of the
| United States weather bureau, lorna
! does occur more frequently in May
April, June and July, in the ordar.
/ named, the most violent ones thus far
/ recorded having happened in April and
! the greatest ELmber in May. Already
/ tornad0es have occurred this season
! in this territory, accompanied by much
/ damage to property and loss of life
A tornado is the concentration Of
storm energy. 1t is the most destruc-
! tive and the most sudden in appear
| ance of all forms of atmospheric dis
| turbance, and Is least easily recog-
nized in its early stages even by the
expert. A tornado and an electric
/ storm arise from the same general
| conditions, and in the beginning can
not be distinguished one from the
other They often are Identical up to
a certain point and are DETECTED into
the one or the other by local condi-
lions with which the general cyclonlc
storm comes in contact in its passage
from one point to another
Edward II. Bowie, chief of the ST.
Louis weather bureau, has made a
special study of the subject of lorna
does and is in position to speak with
authority regarding them.
81 think" said he, at would be well
to bring out one point in the begin
ming of this subject, and that is the
difference between tornadoes and cy-
clones. The sort of windstorm that is
popularity called a cyclone is not cy-
clone at all, but Is a tornado. The
tornado is the storm that makes its
appearance In the form of a funnel
shaped cloud, while the cyclone Is a
general storm, or an area of low
barometric pressure The word CIV
clone means revolving wind. It Is
true, and a cyclone is revolving wind.
only the revolution covers a much
greater area than that of the so-called
twisters,' or tornadoes. A cyclone may
be a thousand miles in diameter, while
tornado may not be more than n
hundred feet
THE CYCLONE
The cyclone Is the parent of the tor
nado 1t Is the general condition that
produces the tornado. There il al
ways a cyclone somewhere in the Unit
ed States. Without it this country
would dry up, for the cyclones bring
us our rains. If you examine wealth
er map you will see certain sections
marked low These are the areas Of
low pressure, the storm centers or cv-
clones, and If you will look further
you will find that all the little arrows
which show the direction of the wind
In the different localities around this
low region point in a direction gener
ally slanting toward the center of the
area marked low circling from right
to left or opposite to the hands of q
| clock. That means that the eouiilih-
RUM of the atmosphere Is disturbed
but not violently, and that the motion
Is in generally rotary direction but
horizontal rather than vertical. These
storm centers move across the country
from day to day, in generally north
easterly direction. and the atmospheric
conditions which they encounter en-
route are the immediate causes of vio-
lent storms Of one kind or another
Sometimes 1t Is a severe thunderstorm
and sometimes 1t is a tornado. These
storm centers, or cyclones, extend over
large areas, varying from 800 or 400
miles to a thousand or more miles in
diameter.
WHERE TOMATOES ORIGINATE.
"Tornadoes always originate in the
southeast quadrant of these areas Of
low pressure, usually due southeast of
the center at a distance of from POO
to 225 miles and they. like the parent
cyclone. travel in a generally north
easterly direction.
The tornado travels ten or a hun
dred miles. and is dissipated in a few
hours. while cyclone may travel for
days and cover thousan ds of miles of
territory in its progress The Calves
ton hurricane is an instance of this
/ That storm was first observed south
east Of the island of Porto Rico on
September /. 1t moved westwardly
with the general drift of the air. was
detected from its normal course up
the Atlantic coast by a bank of cold
air over the eastern States. and on
September 10 was In northern Texas.
It then recurved toward the northeast,
/ passed over the great lakes and the st.
Lawrence valley as a storm of marked