The Washington herald., 1913-08-02
BIG STORM WAS /
BABY Tornado
Start Of a Disturbance Like
Those that Make Kansas
MR.. BOWIE GIVES VIEWS
Makes Scientific Explanation Of How
Meeting Of Cold and Hot Air
Strata Caused the Trouble.

The storm OF Wednesday afternoon,
which exacted a toll Of three lives and
about 100000 in property damage In the
District, was. it appears. the mere start
of a tornado like those that have made
Kansas famous.
This Is not according to the exact
records registered on the peculiar wrigg'y
maps in the Weather Bureau, but II Is
the diagnosis of the disturbance given by
one of the bureaus foremost experts from
a description of the cloud effects that pre-
ceded the battle in the skies.
1t will be remembered that the storm
first made its appearance in the north in
the form of a line of dark blue along the
horizon. and was heralded by growls OF
thunder. This mass drew near, and then
close observers saw that the whole was
composed of a sort of supeTstructure CT
white. feecy clouds piled high, under
which a mass of yellow rolled, beloved,
and seethed, apparently being pulled into
shreds by its own force. The billowy
clouds were, It seems. 'cumulo nimbus,"
and the yellowish mass "fracto cumulus-
| Edward II. Bowie. forecaster Of the bu-
reau. was not in Washington during
| Wednesdays storm, but last night. sit
| ting in the Cosmos Club. while another
summer storm ragged outside. he dag
nosed the disturbance from the above de-
scription.
1T was in the first place strictly a
| local affair" said Mr.. Bowie. There
is no doubt that it was caused primarily
by the overheating, by a succession OF
broiling days, Of considerable area
of ground somewhere near here.
Strike. Cold Air Strata.
"When the lower stratum of air thus
becomes overheated it expands and then
begins to rise rapidly. A great column
| OF this hot air rises and rises until II
| strikes the cold air strata way up in the
heavens. sometimes at the height of
| three miles. There the warm air Is
cooled quickly and the moisture II con-
! tanned is condensed and the white fleecy
clouds. Sometimes called a thunder
head result.
This is only the start Of the trouble.
however. As the warm air ascends 1t
leaves behind it partial vacuum and
down into this space the cold air from
tn. top tumbles 1t is again warmed
and ascends and there is set up a con-
tlnuous motion with the warm column OF
air rising as the center and the cold air
rushes into the partial vacuum at the
bottom from all directions. In this way
is set up the rotary motion that in the
West often proves so destructive.
THE big white piles OF cloud tho:
were seen high in the sky are known by
the name OF 'Cumulo nimbus' and they
contain the bulk Of the moisture that
IS drawn up from the earth in the rush
ing spout Of warm atmosphere. The mid
die structure, or that part that was ut
a yellow tinge was made OF 'fracto
cumulus' clouds, and there the whirl
and suction were so great that the clouds
were torn apart by their own force, Civ
ing the ragged, frayed appearance. 1t Is
often the case that the warm air is shot
up from the earth with such force that
the cumulo nimbus cloud at the top is
torn open and is piled up in the rIddl.
like the top OF fountain.
HaiIstones Tossed About.
And those hailstOnes that came dow n.
during this storm-if you had cut one Of
them open you would have found that
ii WAS composed of maybe six or eight
layers of alternating snow and ice You
see, the moisture is first drawn Up when |
the hot air rises. Now follow one per-
rcular particle. 1t is shot into the |
mass of cold air way up there and is |
converted into snow. Maybe II stays ir |
there couple of minutes and then it Is !
forced on through the cloud and starts !
TO fall back to the earth. Its outer
coating is melted, but before it reaches |
the surface OF the earth it is sucked into |
the vortex OF rising air and again is |
treated to a trip through the cold |
stratum. 1t comes out with a coating |
of ice and then it may be returned aCair |
to take on its snow coat. This process |
may be repeated ten or more times and |
for each trip it has a layer of snow or |
ic-
1T Is probable that all OF the mois-
ture that drenches the earth is frozen at |
one one time or another. and that the
rain we have in the summer was snow
when it started. but was melted on tie
way down"