THE KANSAS CITY TORNADO, MAY 13, 1883. 123 
passage, examining many of the prostrated and less damaged buildings and ques- 
tioning many eye witnesses of the phenomenon, the following conclusions were 
arrived at, viz : 
ist. That the aerial disturbance was a veritable tornado with a whirling 
motion of intense rapidity and a progressive motion from southwest to northeast 
of about sixty miles an hour. 
2d. That those buildings which were in the center of the whirl were twisted 
and prostrated by the actual force of the whirling motion, while those outside -of 
the whirl, but in the progressive track of the tornado, were destroyed or damaged 
by the expansion of the air within them, which threw walls, furniture, and even 
persons, outwardly and upwardly in every instance, 
3d. That almost the entire force of the tornado was expended within the 
city limits, for, as far as we can learn, no harm was done by it either before it 
struck the city on the southwest or after its disappearance at the northeast corner; 
that is to say, it was only about three miles long, while its width in no case 
exceeded six hundred feet, or two blocks, and in the greater part of its course it 
was hardly half so wide. 
The temperature and barometrical pressure at the various Signal Office stations 
on this line, for the 12th, 13th and 14th of May, including the day of the 
storm and one immediately before and after it, were as follows : 
May 12, 1883, 2 P. M. bar. ther. wind. 
Ft. Concho, Texas ... .29.90 87° S. 
Dodge City, Kas 29.87 77 E. 
Leavenworth, Kas .... 30.12 54 E. 
Kansas City, Mo 30.09 60 S. 
Keokuk, Iowa. ..... 30. 17 56 NE. 
May 13th, 2 P. M. 
Ft. Concho, Texas . . . . 29 76 84° S. 
Dodge City, Kas. ... 29.41 75 NW. 
Leavenworth, Kas . . . .29.22 64 SE. 
Kansas City, Mo 28.80 61 SW. 
Keokuk, Iowa 29.78 51 SE. 
May 14th, 2 P. M. 
Ft. Concho, Texas . . . .30.05 76° NE. 
Dodge City, Kas 29.85- 67 N, 
Leavenworth, Kas .... 29. 77 57 NW. 
• Kansas City, Mo 29.76 67 S. 
Keokuk, Iowa 29.57 62 W. 
It will be observed that the barometer was lower on the 13th than on the 
•day before, or the day after, all along this northeasterly line, but in no other respect 
■does there seem to be any special concurrence of phenomena. 
There is a very uniform concurrence in regard to the funnel-shape of the 
tornado-cloud, though several persons testify to a different shape, a bar or beam- 
