28 JOURNAL OF THE 



NOTES ON THE TORNADO WHICH OCCURRED 



IN RICHMOND COUNTY, N. C, 



FEBRUARY iqtit, 1884. 



J. A. HOLMES. 



It will be remembered that on February 19th of the present year 

 (1884), occurred an extensive series of tornadoes, which beginning at 

 their western Hmits during the early morning hours, as the day ad- 

 vanced moved in a general easterly and northeasterly course through 

 parts of Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, and from Mississippi 

 through Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and 

 into Virginia. Tornadoes occurred in South Carolina between the 

 hours of about 5 and 10 o'clock p. m. ; in North Carolina between 

 9 and 11 p. m. : and in Virginia about 12 o'clock midnight. 



At the time of the occurrence of the tornadoes in the Carolinas, 

 the general storm center (region of barometric minima) was pass- 

 ing over the central portion of Lake Huron.- Around this center 

 the isobars were so disposed as to form a somewhat irregular oblong 

 barometric trough, the major axis of which was extended in a nearly 

 north and south direction. At this time over the central Mississippi 

 Basin, and as far South as Atlanta, the winds were from the northwest ; 

 in the southeast portion of the Basin these winds turned toward the 

 east. Along the South Atlantic Seaboard from Savannah to Cape 

 Hatteras, the winds moved from the ocean in a general northerly 

 course. The winds from the northwest were cold — those from the 

 south were warm and moist ; and whether this fact may or may not 

 have been an important factor in producing the tornadoes, it was 

 over the region of country where the meeting of these winds took 

 place that the series of violent tornadoes occurred. 



The tornado to be considered in this paper occurred in Richmond 

 county, N. C, — passing near Rockingham and continuing a north- 

 east course beyond that town. In loss of life it proved to be the 

 most destructive tornado recorded as having occurred in the State. 

 Eighteen persons were killed at the time and seventy-five wounded; 

 loss in property estimated at f 10, 000. The writer visited the path 

 of this tornado one week after the occurrence storm, and examined 



