Tornado in N. E. part of Ohio, Feb. A, 1842. 291 



Here is the same rotation as at Mayfield and Kirtland, but the 

 whirling motion is well nigh masked by the progressive motion 

 of the tornado. There are but two anomalies, and these are so 

 small as hardly to be entitled to the name. The mean direction 

 upon the southeast side is N, 39° E. which is a little more east- 

 erly than at Mayfield, The mean direction of the bottom trees 

 upon the northwest side is N. 7° W. ; of the top trees N. 14° E. 

 The phenomena are still of the same kind as at Mayfield and 

 Kirtland, but less distinctly marked. 



There have frequently been remarked in tornadoes places of 

 interrupted violence. This was the case in the present instance, 

 though I think this phenomenon may be ascribed in a good de- 

 gree to inequalities in the surface of the ground. Thus at May- 

 field, near A A, B B, the wind was well nigh irresistible. As the 

 ground began to descend towards the river, the tornado seemed 

 to continue nearly on the same level, and only reached the tallest 

 trees. At about half a mile from the river, on the west side, it 

 again struck the ground, and presently exhibited its greatest vio- 

 lence. As it met the hill on the east side of the river, it was 

 forced to rise again, and near the brow of the hill its violence 

 seemed fully equal to the greatest violence in the valley. The 

 upward motion it had received in ascending this hill appears to 

 have continued for some time afterwards ; for although the sub- 

 sequent ground was nearly level, yet at a distance of about a 

 mile from the river, the trees were not generally uprooted, but 

 broken off at an elevation of from twenty to forty feet. Again, 

 at Painesville little damage was done to the town, while in the 

 woods on the opposite side of the river, and nearly on the same 

 level, almost every tree was prostrated. 



I do not find, then, a uniform diminished action on the sum- 

 mits of hills, and increased action in the bottoms of valleys, as 

 has been remarked in other cases. There were, however, some 

 facts in the vicinity of the house L at Mayfield quite remarkable. 

 Although the house was swept off by a wind having nearly the 

 velocity of a cannon ball, several apple trees near by were not 

 uprooted, and a row of bee-hives in the open air sustained no 

 great damage. They were blown nearly a rod, and some so 

 much injured that it was thought best to empty them entirely of 

 their honey ; but three hives are still in their places filled with 

 bees, and bear no marks of the passage of a tornado. The bam 



