Alaska sentinel., 1907-09-05

The territory included in the States 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, torna- does occur more frequently In May, April, June and July, In the order named, the most violent ones thus far recorded having happened in April and the greatest number In May. Already tornadoes 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. It Is the most destruc- tive and the most sudden In appear ance of all forms of atmospheric dis turbance, and Is least. easily recog- hized 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 certain point and are defected into the one or the other by local condi- tions with which the general cyclonic storm comes in contact in It's passage from one point to another.
 Edward H. Bowie, chief of the St. Louis weather bureau, has made a special study of the subject of torna- does and Is in position to speak with authority regarding them.
 "I think" said he, Lit would be we'll 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 popularly called a cyclone Is not a cy- clone at all, but Is tornado. The tornado is the storm that makes It's appearance In the form of funnel shaped cloud, while the cyclone Is a general storm, or an area of low barometrlc pressure. The word cy- clone means a revolving wind, 1t Is true, and 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 thousand miles in diameter, while tornado may not be more than hundred feet.
 THE CYCLONE
 The cyclone Is the parent of the tor nado. It Is the general condition that produces the tornado. There Is all ways a cyclone somewhere in the Unit ed States. Without 1t this country would dry up, for the cyclones bring US our rains If you examine q weath- CT map you will see certain sections marked low These are the areas of low pressure, the storm centers or cy- 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 circllng from right to left, or opposite to the hands of | clock. That means that the eQuiiIib- rum of the atmosphere Is disturbed. but not violently, and that the motion Is In a 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 yio- lent storms of one kind or another. Sometimes 1t is a severe thunderstorm and sometimes It Is tornado. These storm centers, or cyclones, extend over large areas, varying from 300 or 400 miles to q thousand or more miles in diameter.
 WHERE ToRNADoEs 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 dlssipated in a few hours. while a cyclone may travel for days and cover thousands 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 1. It moved westwardly with the general drift of the air was deflected 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.