WADSWORTH & NIPHER TORNADO OF APRIL I4, 79. IO3 



Chamois, 80 miles S.E. of Glasgow and about 60 miles W. of 

 St. Louis. The major axis of this rain area was almost due east 

 and west, extending at i p.m. from a point about midway between 

 Sedalia and Warrensburgh to St. Charles. The northern bound- 

 ary of the rain passed at this time near Mexico, the southern being 

 about midway between Chamois and Rolla, in a region not rep- 

 resented by obsei"vers. The rainfall was in this case somewhat 

 greater than in the morning. It was most violent at the extremi- 

 ties of the longitudinal axis, being 0.83 at Chamois, reaching a 

 maximum of 2.75 at Sedalia, 100 miles west of Chamois, and 

 increasing also rapidly to the east, being 1.93 inches at St. Louis. 

 Farther to the east, in Illinois, the rain was also very violent, but 

 no observations were made upon it. 



The facts above given are all clearly shown by the observations 

 of the Missouri Weather Service. The progress of the second 

 rain is represented on a small map on Chart No. i, which shows 

 the time of beginning of the rain and the amount of rain in 

 inches.* 



At St. Louis the raincloud appeared in the west shortly after i 

 o'clock, and at 2 p.m. heavy rain and hail with thunder and light- 

 ning began, the hailstones averaging 5 inch in diameter at Wash- 

 ington University. Some of the hailstones were i j inches in diam- 

 eter. At this time the wind was from the N.W. The hail ceased 

 at 2 : 10 and the rain ceased at 2 : 20. The wind in the mean 

 time had for a short time reached 40 miles per hour : it quickly 

 subsided to 10 or 15 miles per hour. At 2 : 20 the clouds over- 

 head appeared much broken, the surface wind and lower cloud 

 (scud) moving from the N.W., while the upper clouds came from 

 the S.E. Although broken overhead, a smooth and somewhat 

 luminous raincloud was coming rapidly up from the west ; its 

 front was of a green color : it had the appearance of being a thin 

 cloud, through which the sunlight was transmitted in unusual 

 quantity. At 2 : 35 heavy rain and hail again began, the hail 

 being somewhat smaller than before, but in greater quantity. At 



* It is hoped that this will be sufficient to show all of our observers how important it may 

 be to determine accurately the times of beginning and ending of all rains, even when they 

 appear to be insignificant. It should also be stated whether the time given is St. Louis, 

 Chicago, Jefferson City, or local time, in order that corrections for differences of time may 

 be made with more accuracy than has been possible in case of the ones given above. 



