Why No Warning?

Shortly after 6 p.m. on April 27, 1899, a tornado touched down on the northeast side of the town of Kirsksville in northern Missouri. The tornado funnel reportedly appeared to be very narrow, but it produced a 1/4 mile wide damage path through a residential area. Thirty four people died along the twister’s six mile path and 125 were injured. Three hundred buildings were destroyed or damaged. A different tornado struck the towns of Newtown and Harris, Missouri. Twelve people died in Newtown.

After the disaster, the Chicago Tribune questioned whether telephones and telegraphs could have been used to warn residents of towns in the path of the twisters once they had already touched down. There was a prevailing view in the weather community at that time that issuing tornado warnings would do more harm than good. It was first believed that the public would panic upon hearing the warning, including telephone or telegraph operators that would vacate their posts, failing to send the warning onto the next town. Additionally, since people could not be sure which way the tornado was moving, the wrong towns might be warned. Tornadoes might dissipate, causing false alarms to be issued. It was believed that the unnecessary panic and loss of productivity from false warnings would be worse than the effects of the tornadoes themselves.

These factors held back advances in tornado forecasting from the 1890s until the 1950s. In fact, the use of the word tornado in forecasts was banned by the Weather Bureau from 1885 until 1938. These theories should have been questioned by the public, as huge death tolls continued to mount from tornadoes, but nothing was done. The purpose of The Weather Bureau was to warn the public of approaching storms and they were failing at this responsibility. In fact, The Weather Bureau was actually telling the public not to worry about a tornado until they actually saw one. Then it is too late. At a minimum, there should have been public awareness and safety campaigns such as the ones started by John Park Finley in the 1880s. Things would finally change in the 1950s.

Category: Uncategorized