219 

 Brief Notes on the New Castle Tornado. 



C. C. Beals — Indiana University. 



A number of destructive tornadoes occurred in Indiana during 

 1917. The first one of these passed over a part of New Castle. Mr. 

 Melvin Kelleher and the writer mapped the tract of the storm under 

 the direction of the Geology Department of Indiana University. 



The New Castle tornado formed about 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon 

 on March 11, 1917. At the point of origin objects were displaced by 

 two currents of air. One from the southwest and the other from the 

 northwest, meeting in Sec. 11, Tp. 17 N, E. 9 E. The wind from the 

 southwest seemed to be a straight wind but the one from the north- 

 west evidently had a spiral motion, judging from the direction the 

 fences, trees and other objects fell. The first evidences of wind dis- 

 turbance occurred about one mile southwest of Cadiz. The storm 

 traveled almost due east except for a few short curves. It struck New 

 Castle about the center on the west side, after crossing a broad glacial 

 valley, and emerged near the southeast corner of the town. The tor- 

 nado continued in a general eastward direction, going south of Hagers- 

 town, and ceased inflicting damage about four miles southeast of that 

 place. 



The storm evidently continued eastward high in the air, going about 

 eight miles north of Richmond into Ohio. Fragments of articles were 

 found in Ohio. 



One interesting feature noted was in a large wood about sixty rods 

 from north to south which lay in the path of the wind where the storm 

 first formed. Trees were uprooted and broken off, all falling toward 

 the general direction of the wind except two trees at either end, which 

 were crossed. The main destruction was catised by the portion of the 

 storm south of the storm center and the crossing was produced by the 

 opposite current in the whirl. 



The track of the storm could be easily traced except at two points, 

 where there was no disturbance for over one-half mile in each case. 



The storm first appeared like a huge mass of black coal smoke 



