THE TERRIFYING TORNADO.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 88, 15 April 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE TERRIFYING TORNADO.

Fortunately we in New Zealand have had no experience whatever of that extraordinary wind vagary known as the tornado. In some countries, however, particulai'ly certain States in America, so serious a. menace have they become that scientists have, for the past 15 years, been waging a great fight against these terrifying winds.

Actually tornados do more damage than any other storm. They occur almost invariably between three and five, o'clock in the afternoon and have scarcely ever been known to take place in the morning. The most terrifying feature is the funnel-shaped cloud stretching from the heavy storm cloud down to the surface of the earth. Everything coming in contact with the tornado explodes like a bomb.

,To fully realise tho violence of the storm it is only necessary to say that straws have been driven through stout oak boards. It is quite a common thing to meet birds that have been stripped of every feather, and trees uprooted and split to fragments. In the fearful tornado that occurred in 1896 at St. Louis (U.S.A.) the velocity of the air near the ground reached the incredible speed of 558 miles per hour. No wonder there are records of human beings, cattle and horses being lifted bodily and hurled some hundreds of feet through the air.

"A danger foreseen is half avoided," so the saying goes. In no better way is the truth of this statement emphasised than in the case of tornados. Scientists in Kansas (U.S.A.) can now predetermine the path of a coming tornado, and thus warn the unfortunate citizens who are able to rush for shelter to their tornado cellars. These cellars are really large earthen dugouts, and offer the only place of safety and refuge until the tornado has passed on its way.

As yet no means have been devised whereby to combat this dreaded natural eilemy, but it is very certain that the time is not far distent when science will conquer in this great war between man and" the elements.