144 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



METEOROLOGY. 



TORNADOES : THEIR SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS AND DANGERS. 



BY JOHN P. FINLEY, U. S. SIGNAL CORPS. 



Having in a previous article touched upon the method of investigation, 

 the importance and necessity of careful preparation and exact work, and portray- 

 ed at some considerable length the character and extent of the data required, I 

 will now consider some of the practical results of such methods of labor. In 

 other words I will, as far as present advance in this work will permit, answer the 

 oft repeated questions on every hand: " What is the object of all this systematic 

 labor under Government authority? How is it possible for the people to derive 

 any benefit from that which appears to be conducted for the advantage of scien- 

 tists only?" 



In the first place we are starting out to discuss what? The cyclone? No. 

 The tornado ? Yes. Let us commence then by a ube of the right name. Ac- 

 quire the habit of calling things by their right mmes, if you know them or have the 

 means of information, and you will thereby avoid confusion of terms. Very likely 

 you will save yourself many a fruitless search and not a few misemployed hours of 

 study. The terms cyclone and tornado are constantly interchanged in their use 

 and, in the minds of nine-tenths of the people who have occasion to use them, 

 mean one and the same thing. This is not altogether surprising when we consid- 

 er the meagre possessions of the most of mankind in regard to accurate meteoro- 

 logical knowledge and the general disposition of intelligent minds to speculate 

 about the weather. There is, perhaps, no branch of science where a field for 

 the roving and unsettled theorist is more opportune or more completely at his 

 mercy. Discreet thinkers and careful observers everywhere, should grasp the 

 importance of this situation and actively extend their sympathy and support in 

 favor of mature considerations of well known principles. They should cheerfully 

 assist in dredging the channels of human thought and clear away the feeling of 

 mystery, even superstition, making common and ust-ful one of the most impor- 

 tant of all subjects, bearing upon the welfare of mankind. 



Those atmospheric disturbances properly classed under the head of Wind 

 Storms may be designated as follows: C) clones, tornadoes, hurricanes, whirl- 

 winds, waterspouts, hailstorms and thunderstorms. 



Cyclones. — A cyclone is not a tornado and it never can be. The two 

 storms are essentially different. The former possesses the following characteris- 

 tics : The path of the storm is a parabolic curve. It trends northwestward trom 

 the West Indies until it reaches parallel 30° N. when it curves to the NE. and 

 continues in that direction, either at some distance off the Atlantic Coast, on its 

 immediate border or a short distance inland. The storm finally disappears ocean- 



