Evening star., 1938-08-21
BIG WIND
Continued from pose nine

sion of the vacuum cleaner will suck
up dust, debris and even farm ami
mails, and carry them for miles
The action of this core on build
ing is interesting. BY creating partial
vacuum around a house, the air
trapped on the inside will cause it to
explode, literally. These explosions.
rather than the force of the wind are
responsible for the destructive force of
the tornado
To appreciate how potent this may
be, consider that tornadoes kill an
average of 800 people in the United
States each year. One cut an ugly
cash across St. Louis in May, 1896,
and killed 255 people 1t accomplished
this in the space of a few minutes. The
tornado of March, 1925, swept across
Missouri, Indiana and Illinois; killed
sos people and destroyed Sic, 800 900
worth of property. Tornadoes at sea
are called waterspouts. Instead of
carrying debris skyward, they suck
up water and whatever fish are near
the surface. This phenomenon ac-
counts for the rain Of fish" that is
encountered occasionally along sea-
coasts
Realize the fact that a tornado
rarely travels more than SO miles and
that a hurricane may ride for thou
sands of miles and you can appreciate
the distinct problems each presents
to the meteorologist. The weather
man can do little more than chart the
course of the tornado after it has
passed. But he can predict with
astonishing accuracy the path Of the
hurricane and when it will strike.
The fountainhead of the U. S.
Weather Bureaus hurricane-report-
ing service is the Naval Air Station
at Arlington, Virginia. This service
was established in 1898. Ships at sea
report to this station daily, giving
temperature, wind direction and
velocity and barometric pressure
ample data from which to calculate
the probable course of any hurri-
cane.
A ship that notes an abnormally
low barometric pressure in the Dol
drums is usually the one that an
nounces the birth of hurricane.
Amateur wireless operators in the
direct path of the storm supply further
information. Storm warnings then
begin to crackle out of the towers.
At the present time scientists are
working on better method Of pre-
dieting. by radio methods. the ap-
proach of these storms.
We have already noted that most
hurricanes bounce back to sea from
the Florida Coast. But not always.
An occasional hurricane has sufficient
momentum to crash through any
barriers; or possibly atmospheric
conditions are such that the normal
barrier is nonexistent In this case
the storm blasts its way into the Gulf
of Mexico. Such storm as this was
the worst in u. S. history 1t was the
one that struck Galveston Sept. 8.
1900. killing a total of $500 people.
In its wake this storm towed tidal
wave that inundated the city
something that happens frequently.
After finishing its work on Gulf port
towns this hurricane howled up the
Mississippi Valley, turned East at
the Great Lakes and drove down the
St. Lawrence and out to sea. In all,
it was charted for twenty-one days.
Most serious of the recent hurri-
canes to strike the United States was
the one that lashed Florida in 1926.
1t was the fourth largest in history.
Doing an estimated total damage OF
SlOO,OOO,OOO. this gigantic storm
MAKING ]