TORNADO TALES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2665, 10 August 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

TORNADO TALES.

» Wiik.vkvkil a great tornado occurs in tha United States, the Meteorological Bureau sends one or more officers to inquire into and observe on the spot the effects produced. These officers tell some queer things in their reports. For instance, in the case of ,i tornado which " struck ' lowa and Illiuois some years ago, the following were among the " facts"' reported :—

" A. school, with it 3 teachers and act ol'i's, was lifted from its stone foundation ami carried a distance of 25 feet, the whidows, roof, etc, being damaged, but the building was not overturned. As tin: whole weighed about SO.OOOIbs, the velocity of the wind must have exceeded ninety miles an hour, equal to a pressure of nearly 421bs per square foot. Hogs of about three hundred-weight were carried across a ravine and came to earth 300 yards distant. A horse, cow, and Lull took a flight of 200 yards, and sheep double this distance. One bog, weighing ■tOOibs, ' flew ' a mile and :i quarter ; whilst a heifer weighing TOOlbs was carried, away and thrust headforemost into the wet soil until her forcquartcrs were buried. A house weighing twenty tons was wrenched from its foundations, and ploughed up the ground for a distance of lift when it was lifted over tho tops of trees 20 feet high and carried 100 feet, still keeping entire, and only going to pieces when it fell. This required a pressure of more than 71bs per square foot. A granary full of £i°aiii, the total weight of which was (iO.OOOIbs was forced from its position, through an accumulation of wet straw and rubbish, of which it pushed quite a pile before it to a distance of 14 f'.-ef. It was calculated that, the pressure nccessiirj to do work in this case amounted to 234 31bs per square foot, equal to a velocity of 211 i.."> miles per hour. Another gramry weighing iio.OOOlbs, was removed to a distance of twenty-one yards, the pressure required being 107.41hs per square foot. One man stated that he had been picked up by the tornado and whirled about like a top for a distance of fifty yards, and was then brought to a standstill against a fence. The noise, according to one person was like the discharges of artillery, the roaring being terrific, and resembled the sound of machinery magnified a million times. Some houses were blown to pieces, and the fragments dispersed to various distances, the heaviest articles dropping out first. Kroni one farm two cows and thirteen ho us wvru ruthlessly whipped to a distance of 100 yards, and were either killed or fatally injured. As to carts, waggons, wheels ploughs, sewing machines, stoves, machinery and such ' light' articles, they were merely chaff before the wind ; some were blown away and never found again, other were wrenched in pieces and scattered hither and thither."

Sergeant Maclntyro estimated that over an area ten miles wide tlie rain foil at the rate of 23,235,000 cubic feet, or 1,420,000, 001) lbs. per minute ; while in the same time the weight of the air rushing into the vortex was 5,330,020,575,!)221b5. which moving at on assumed velocity of 120 miles an hour, represents a horse power of 77,089,092,101,106 ! It is to be hoped that our readers cau grasp these facts, and from them form some idea of the difference between the American tonado aud the. modest storms of Britain. Our storms at least have the merit of discrimating between the strong aud the weak ; but the tornado recklessly mows down everything, uprooting trees and picking up pins with equal ease.