542 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE' 



without the animal's having been injured in the least. At the farm of .Mr. 

 W. H. Wilford, a barn that had sheltered a herd of cattle was blown a\va» 

 leaving the terrified but unharmed animals standing on the floor or plat- 

 form of the building. The cows were milked shortly after the storm had 

 passed. Within the town, a garage was carried away and scattered over 

 the surrounding country, while the automobile it had contained was left 

 without a scratch upon its paint and with its windshield unbroken. A frail 

 lattice for vines or flowers was left standing in the center of the path 

 of greatest destruction. A pigeon is reported to have been blown against 

 a tree with such force that its beak was driven firmly into the wood, the 

 dead bird remaining suspended in that manner for several days. 



Between five p. m. and six p. m., normal central time, hail occurred 

 throughout an area about ten miles in length and about eight miles in 

 width, extending from the cities of Rock Island and Moline, 111., northward 

 and northeastward to Eldridge and Argo, Iowa. Notwithstanding the large 

 size of the hail stones, some of which were fully 0.8 inch in diameter, there 

 was no serious loss reported from this cause. 



TORNADOES OF MAY 21, 1918. 



By Charles D. Reed, Meteorologist. 



(75th meridian mean time used herein.) 

 Remarkable tornado activity was manifested in five distinct and widely 

 separate paths on May 21. The locations of these paths are shown on the 

 chart on page 37. As usual, the damage was intermittent and more or 

 less zigzag along these paths but reports from practically every township 

 and in many cases every section crossed, show by the time of occurrence 

 and the description, the unmistakable progressive motion and continuous 

 indentity of each tornado, and each one at all stages showed the character- 

 istic funnel shape cloud, rotary winds and position of debris: 



1. Tornado, Denison to Stanhope. 



The earliest tornado started about 2:15 p. m. a few miles southwest of 

 Denison, Crawford county (see storm track No. V on chart, page 37.) 

 moving in a general east-northeasterly direction, passing north of Denison 

 and south of West Side in Crawford county, south of Arcadia, north of 

 Carroll and south of Lanesboro, Carroll county, between Adaza and Chur- 

 dan in Greene county, entering the southwest corner of Webster county 

 and moving almost due eastward through the south tier of townships 

 south of Harcourt and moving into Hamilton county just north of Stan- 

 hope and disappearing north of Stratford about 4:30 p. m. The total 

 length of the path of the storm was about 69 miles and its total duration 

 2 hours and 15 minutes. Its average rate of progress was about 31 miles 

 per hour. The average width of the path of greatest destruction was 2475 

 feet or 165 feet less than a half mile. It was widest, 2i/^ miles, near 

 Harcourt. Over the first half the path averaged about 800 feet wide and 

 over the last half 4450 feel^ There were places near the beginning and 

 toward the end where there were occasional skips in the path of destruc- 

 tion, but over most of its course the destruction was complete. 



