Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-23
EQUINOX DECLARED
NOT STORM CAUSE
Hurricane Season Is Merely
Coincidence, Nature Asso-
~
citation Bulletin Says.

-, They will tell you-4n the West Indies
they have some hard blows when the
rsun goes over" but statistics show
there is no maximum of storm
frequency, either in this country or in
Europe. close to the date of either
equinox, according to a bulletin from
the American Nature Association. Fall
began this year at 2:06 O'Clock, Eastern
time, this morning.
September is the month in which the
Galveston blow and the Shenandoah
disaster occurred. The former was In
1900 and the second was in 1928. More
damage was done at Galveston by water
than by wind.
Storms do occur about these dates
lust as they occur at all other times of
the year, but there is no scientific rea-
son for SuppoSing that their occurrence
can be connected in any way with the
suns. passage over the equator.
Occurs in Storm Period.
The Autumnal equinox occurs during
the season of West India hurricanes.
and it occasionally happens that storms
of this character sweep up our Eastern
seaboard within week or two Of the
date in question, extending their in
f1uence far inland, according to the
American Nature Association. These
events have probably helped to foster
the widespread belief in an Autumnal
equinoctial storm.
The Barbados hurricane of 1880 was
probably the most destructive hurricane
that has occurred in the West Indies.
SaXby'S gale swept over eastern Canada
with terrific force, october 4, 1869. 1t
owes its name to the fact that IL was
predicted by Lieut.. SaXby OF the British
navy.
In the Backergunge cyclone, october,
1876 more than 100000 people were
drowned by the storm waves over the
Gauges Delta. In the Tay Bridge dis
aster of December Is, 1879, the bridge
over the Firth of Tay, in Scotland, was
blown down while passenger train was
passing over it.
The blizzard of March lila, 1883. |
also known as the great March biz
gard" the New York blizzard" and III
New Hampshire as the town meeting
storm" is historic.
The Samoa hurricane of March lG, |
1889. wrecked American and German
warships in the harbor of Apia, with
heavy loss of life.
The st. Louis tornado of May 81, 1895, |
was the most destructive of the three
tornadoeS that have occurred in large |
American cities, the other being the
Louisville tornado of 1890 and the
Omaha tornado OF 1918.
The Portland storm of November &C. |
81, 1898, is the classic example OF the |
danger of ignoring storm signals. The
steamer Portland, which furnished the
object lesson in this case, was one Of
more than lao vessels wrecked by the
storm on the New England coast.
A gale wrecked the steamship ROYAL
Charter on the coast of Wales october
&c, 1859, with loss of 446 lives.
1t will be seen, the American Nature
Association points out that devastating
storms do occur in Spring and Fall. A
tornado is a. cloud an upright, revolv- !
ing, roaring, devastating cloud. But it |
Is not a typhoon, monsoon or hurrl- |
cane. Above all, it is not cyclone"
Typhoons and monsoons are storms |
covering large areas, hundreds of miles |
in diameter, and they give rise to
straight winds only. The winds of a |
tornado have violent rotary motion. |
The word Cyclone" refers, correctly, to |
the great storm areas which pass, week |
by week, across the United States.
Tornado Comparatively Small.
The weather man reports a storm
that storm is the result of the approach
of cyclone covering, mayhap, the en-
tire Mississippi Valley or the Pacific
Coast or the Atlantic. A tornado at its
largest will be less than 1000 feet wide
at the base.
Whenever the barometer falls a cy-
clone is approaching. A tornado may |
accompany it, provided the cyclone is |
of tornado character; provided the 10
cality is tornado territory; above all, |
provided it is tornado season.
TornadoeS come in season. But that |
season is not July and August. 1t is
not even June, the Sultry month OF |
Summer, but is limited, strangely and |
fortunately, to March, April and May. |
April is the month of bumper lorna |
do crops. A later variety flourishes in |
May and, rarely a few spring up in
late August and September. The hot
days of Summer are not producers OF
the funnel clouds.
The prevailing idea that tornadoes
occur during Midsummer has crept into
text books Beginning early in March
will come reports from Texas and Miss
iSSippi, and by late May the DakotaS
and Minnesota will have been visited.
Statistics show that nearly 80 per cent
take form in the first three months OF
Spring.
al TornadoeS Come in Afternoon.
Clouds and seasons have definite
relationship Such is the case with the
funnel cloud. Different periods of the
same day will produce different clouds.
The tornado comes usually in the late
afternoon or the early evening.
Tomatoes seldom occur outside the
United States. The Mississippi valley
reserves them mainly for itself. Texas,
Oklahoma. Kansas and Missouri run
neck and neck for funnel-cloud honorS.
Nebraska easily takes second place.
Then comes Mississippi, Alabama,
Iowa, Illinois, the Dakotas and Min
nesota. Outside this region the Whlrl-
ing cloud seldom strikes. 1t is I'M
known in California. New England is
never visited.
Closely connected with the develop
ment of weather forecastlng is the
'sCfimean storm" of November, 1854.
This tempest ragged over the Black Sea
and played havoc with the fleets and
camps of the allied forces engaged in
the Crimean War.
4 The French astronomer, lie Verrier,
director of the Observatory of Paris,
collected information concerning the
progress of the storm over Europe
which convinced him that if Geographic
reports from the western part OF Its
course had been available its diSas-
trous effects might have been averted.
AS a result of this inquiry he drew up
plans for an international Geographic
Stcrm-warning service. which was es
tabIished by the French Government
with the cooperation of other Euro
pecn countries in 1855. Within the
next two decades nearly all the civil
lied countries of the world organized
similar services of their own, and the
scope of these undertakings was en-
larged to include a general system of
weather forecasting from charts based
on telegraphic weather reports: