Fallacies About Kansas Weather. 57 



yet neither of these has Kansas's undesirable reputation for 

 being a tornado state. In a very complete climatology of the 

 United States issued a few years ago by the Weather Bureau, 

 a compilation of the great disasters attributed to tornadoes in 

 various parts of the country is given, and it is interesting to 

 note that none of these occurred in Kansas. 



Professor Henry, in his report, has deduced that even in 

 the states where tornadoes occur most frequently, "the prob- 

 ability that any area 100 miles square will be visited by a 

 tornado in any year is generally less than certainty," and 

 further, "for any specific area or farm of one square mile the 

 probability (of being visited by a tornado) is less than one- 

 sixteenth of one percent per century." 



During a period of twelve years for which definite informa- 

 tion regarding the destruction by tornadoes is available, the 

 average annual number of deaths directly due to these storms 

 is 14, or less than the number caused by lightning, and the 

 average annual propertly loss by these storms is insignificant 

 when compared with the total wealth of the state or the annual 

 loss by floods and hail, yet none of the others has attracted 

 the notice given the damage by tornadoes. 



Kansas has also a reputation for being a windy state, when 

 as a matter of fact the most recent compilation of wind veloc- 

 ity records over the country shows that the winds of the 

 eastern half of the state are not noticeably greater than those 

 of Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio, and are less than those of Michi- 

 gan, and that western Kansas is not as windy a place as 

 western Oklahoma or the panhandle of Texas. 



The roving disposition of many Kansans, who go to sum- 

 mer resorts in the heated periods and seek milder climates in 

 winter, as well as a somewhat prevalent belief that the only 

 cure for the dread disease, pulmonary tuberculosis, is the 

 equable climate of the Southwest, has resulted in a rather 

 widespread belief that Kansas weather is not conducive to 

 bodily comfort and good health. We should remember in this 

 connection that bodily comfort involves a personal equation, 

 since the ideal climate in regard to temperature and humidity 

 does not exist in any part of the world. 



It is true that uniformity of weather from day to day is the 

 exception in the state, and abrupt temperature changes are 

 common, especially in winter. High afternoon temperatures 



