150 



S. A. Hill — Tornadoes and Hailstorms of April [No. 2, 



thinly clad native of India, under sucli circumstances, would probably 

 in many cases be sutfioient to cause death. At Bisalpur in Pilibhit dis- 

 trict some of the hailstones are said to have been J seer (1| H)) in 

 weight, but these must have been aggregates of many individual stones. 

 At Puranpur they were the size of plums, that is to say, about the 

 same size as at Moradabad. 



The hail which fell on the 1st May, though less fatal to human 

 life, owing to the longer warning given of its approach, consisted of 

 very mucli larger stones. The Delhi correspondent of the Pioneer 

 vouches for one stone as much as two pounds in weight, though this 

 was doubtless an aggregate of sevei-al smaller ones ; for the writer says 

 that for two minutes the fall jjresented the appearance of a shower of 

 lumps of ice. The stone as big as a man's fist and weighing 2j chittaoks 



ounce) picked up by the same observer may have been a single one, 

 for the occurrence of such is confirmed by a writer in the Oivil and 

 Military Gazette, who says that at Grhaziabad many hailstones as large 

 as cricket balls fell. The form of the stoues was a " flat oval " \ivq- 

 bably like the disc or button shape often observed in smaller hailstones. 

 Many persons are said to have been cut and wounded by these lai-go 

 hailstones, and at least one was killed outright, having his head split 

 open. At Tilhar the hailstones which fell the same afternoon appear 

 to have been almost equally large. The Assistant Collector says thoy 

 were larger than goose eggs at Tilhar, while, in the west of the tahsil, 

 they averaged nearly 3 inches in diameter. The Fiower correspondent, 

 a European gentleman who was in camp near Tilhar, says, however, 

 they were only as large as turkey's eggs. They were probably not 

 spherical, and three inches was perhaps about their longest dimension, 

 instead of the mean diameter. 



Piulay has found {Professional Papers of the Signal Service, No. YTI) 

 that, out of 192 cases of tornadoes accompanied by hail in the United 

 States, the hail preceded the tornado in 135 cases, followed it in 76, and 

 coincided with it in 4 cases. In these Indian storms the hail seems in 

 all cases to have oceui-red either simultaneously with the most violent 

 phase of the storm or after its first fury had passed. Prom the Morada- 

 bad report it appears that the " hurricane " and hail occurred simul- 

 taneously. In the Tilhar storm, at every place wliere it was observed, 

 the first and most violent wind came from the west and afterwards it 

 suddenly veered to the north, when the hail commenced. At Jaintipur 

 there was a distinct pause between the two gusts of violent wind, 

 probably coincident with the passage of the actual centre of the storm. 

 The hail seems therefore to have fallen chiefly over the western half of 

 the area affected by the storm at any given instant. 



