Tornado Belt Articles

The Fargo correspondent of the Minneapolis Tribune, referring to the late cyclone (August 18, 1880, Cass County tornado), remarks that similar disturbances, accompanied by lamentable loss of life, have afflicted many of the western states during the past few years, and suggest that all houses in regions liable to visitations of this sort should be supplied with good cellars as places of refuge during the prevalence of such storms. The idea is an excellent one, and should be heeded by residents both of towns and the country. …The cyclone of last week was the first, so far as known, that ever visited this region, the hydrographical peculiarities of which, as shown in an editorial in the Argus, some time ago, render such disturbances improbable under average conditions; but the experience of the past year has shown that not any part of the world can claim immunity from them, and so, while it is safe to assert that the Red River Valley is in much less danger than almost any other locality on the continent, it behooves the people to take time by the forelock and be prepared. Fargo Argus.

Source:
Brainerd Tribune
Saturday, August 28, 1880, Page 1

 

The belt of cyclones, even is uncertain within wide limits, so that they can only be infallibly avoided by the abandonment of any country where the cyclone is known.

Source:
The Columbus Journal
Columbus, Nebraska, Wednesday, October 24, 1883
Volume XIV, Number 26, Page 1

 

Col. Plummer’s advice to his readers to at once provide tornado cellars, draws the fire if not ire of the press all over north Dakota.  The Casselton Reporter mildly suggests that Bro. Plummer must have been hard pushed for a subject, or else has forgotten that north Dakota is out of the tornado belt or that the citizens of the city on the Red are not amphibious and would prefer coping with a tornado on dry land than in the subterranean depths of their cellars.

Source:
The Saint Paul Daily Globe
Tuesday Morning, May 13, 1884
Volume VII, Number 134, Page 2

 

TORNADO DESTRUCTION.

 To the Editor of the Globe:

 According to official reports of the signal service 134 people were killed by a tornado on July 26, 1875, near Erie, Pa., and sixty-five were killed by another at Marshfield, Mo., April 18, 1880.  Some of the 600 tornadoes reported from 1794 to 1881 were almost as destructive.

 In the bill now before the house of representatives favoring extension of the signal service reports for the relief of farmers, it is proposed to forecast “cold waves, rains, storms and marked inclemencies of the weather.”  The proposed system of prediction involves only the usual methods.

 Tornadoes require special attention and a high degree of scientific accuracy for their prediction.  Danger signals ought to be established at telegraph stations not later than April 1, 1886, otherwise many lives will be unnecessarily lost.

 WILLIAM A. EDDY,
Tornado Reporter, Signal Service, U. S. A.
New York, Feb. 17, 1886, 135 East Sixteenth street.

 

Under the impression, and rightly too, that the GLOBE is read by more members of congress than any other newspaper in the country, the tornado reporter of the signal service has favored this paper with a number of communications recently of similar import to the above.  Placing these fact together we are led to the conclusion that the signal service wants a good, liberal appropriation from congress for the benefit of the tornado bureau, and it relies on the GLOBE’S influence with congress to secure the appropriation.  As we are fortunately located in a section of the great West which is outside the cyclone belt, and we know nothing of the destructive effects of these freaks of the elements except as we read of their occurrences in the sections South and East of us which have been visited with such horrible consequences by them, we are not in condition to argue the proposition with such force and pathos as it ought to be presented.  At the same time we are willing to do our utmost in a good cause and give Tornado Reporter EDDY the benefit of his appeal by publishing his letter.

While we are anxious to see danger signals established throughout the country in every section where a tornado is liable to blow, what we are particularly interested in is some scientific discovery whereby a cyclone in congress can be foretold.

Source:
The St. Paul Daily Globe
Saturday Morning, February 20, 1886
Volume VIII, Number 51, Page 4

 

Brief Items of Interest from all Parts of Dakota.

On the cyclone day several points in North Dakota were visited by a storm of unusual severity for that section.  It is not known that any one was much hurt.  At Jamestown, as already stated, a few exposed structures were blown down.  In the western part of Walsh county a school house was upset and several houses and barns were demolished, none of them of great value.  It was, however, only a lively blow.  North Dakota has never, so far as known, been visited by one of the twisters that devastate all in its wake, and both scientific theorists and practical observers give plausible reasons for the claim that it is out of the cyclone belt.  Hail sometimes destroys property, but human life seems to be a little safer in the North than elsewhere.

Source:
The St. Paul Daily Globe
Wednesday Morning, April 21, 1886
Volume VIII, Number 111, Page 5

 

Where is the tornado belt?  We quote the New York Times:

“Beginning in the extreme northeastern portion of the United States, the tornado centres are sparse.  The track then stretches south by west, through Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, sweeps through New York, is rather evenly distributed through Western Pennsylvania, the passes through Ohio, Indiana, is heavily visible is Southern Michigan, shows its black dottings through Illinois, ascends to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and is densest in Southwestern Iowa, Northwestern Missouri, and Northeastern Kansas.  South of that on a broad area tending from West Virginia to Northern Mississippi there it absence of tornado spots, but below that from North Carolina, through South Carolina, Georgia, North Alabama, and Middle Mississippi the tornado shows its mark.  In Texas it is not so very frequent.

Source:
The Richmond Dispatch
Tuesday Morning, August 30, 1887
Whole Number 11,281, Page 2