152 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



ground. A scene not easily depicted or realized by one who has not witnessed it^ 

 but never to be effaced from the memory of the actual observer. There is an 

 awful terror in the majesty of the power here represented, and in the unnatural 

 movement of the clouds, which affects animals as well as human beings. The 

 next stage in the further development of this atmospheric disturbance is the grad- 

 ual descent of the funnel-shaped cloud from a point apparently just beneath the 

 position of the enactment of the first scene. The tornado is now before us, not 

 fully developed, but soon to acquire that condition, when the terrible violence of 

 its power will make the earth tremble, animals terrified, and men's hearts quake 

 with fear. 



Premonitory Signs. — On the day of the storm and for several hours pre- 

 vious to the appearance of the tornado cloud, what indications of its probable 

 formation and approach are within the comprehension of any ordinary observer 

 and can readily be detected by him ? A sultry, oppressive condition of the at- 

 mosphere thus described by various observers as follows : "I really experienced 

 a sickly sensation under the influence of the sun's rays." " I was compelled to 

 stop work on account of the peculiar exhaustion experienced from physical exer- 

 tion." " It seemed as if the lightest garments that I could put on were a burden 

 to me." "There was not a breath of air stirring." " The air at times came in 

 puffs as from a heated furnace." " I felt a want of breath, the air frequently ap- 

 pearing too rarified to breathe freely." "I was startled at the sudden and con- 

 tinued rise in the thermometer, especially at this season of the year." "In the 

 forenoon I actually wore an overcoat, but shortly after dinner I put on my straw 

 hat and worked in my shirt sleeves. " "I noticed a remarkable change in the 

 temperature, many of the neighbors spoke about it and said that there was 

 peculiar feeling about the heat, something they had not before experienced in 

 years." "It was terribly oppressive; it seemed as if the atmosphere was unus- 

 ually heavy and pressing down on me with a great weight." 



Enough examples have now been cited to clearly indicate the character of 

 this peculiar sultriness. Other signs equally important and reliable may be found 

 in the development and peculiar formation of the clouds in the western horizon. 

 Sometimes these peculiar clouds extend from the southwest through the west by 

 the north to the northeast. More frequently, however, they form in the north- 

 west and southwest, sometimes commencing, first in the former quarter and then 

 again in the latter, but in either case they are equally significant. The marked 

 peculiarity of the clouds is found to occur not only in the form but in the color 

 and character of development. 



The sudden appearance of ominous clouds, first in the southwest and then 

 almost immediately in the northwest or northeast (perhaps the reverse in the 

 order of their appearance) generally attracts the attention of the most casual ob- 

 server and frequently overcomes him with astonishment. In almost all cases 

 these premonitory clouds are unlike any ordinary and usual formation. If they 

 are light, their appearance resembles smoke issuing from a burning building or 

 straw stack, rolling upward in fantastic shapes to great heights. Again, like 



