The Long War Against Deadly Tornadoes

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The recent tornadic destruction and loss of lives across the United States echoes another era more than 100 years ago — a time when humans began trying to outwit and even defeat tornadoes.

In the 1880s, American newspapers were peppered with reports of deadly tornadoes all across the nation. Nearly 100 people were killed by a storm in south Missouri. Another 22 died in a Mississippi disaster. Forty more were killed in Texas and Iowa. More than 300 died from tornadoes in 1882.

And in 1884, the New York Times reported, an unparalleled series of tornado-laden storms cut across eight states — Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina andSouth Carolina — at the same time. Some 800 people were killed, 2,500 injured and 10,000 buildings were razed.

Over the next 20 years, several enterprising people devised large-scale schemes to thwart tornadoes in their paths. Apparently, none of them worked.

But the intense national focus on the treacherous characteristics of tornadoes eventually led to a greater understanding of the natural forces — and greater respect for and appreciation of their powerful malevolence.

Tornado Panic

Interest in New World tornadoes began in July 1643 when John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts and an avid weather watcher, gave an eyewitness account of an abrupt gust of wind that moved a meeting house and felled a tree — killing a passerby.

Though this is the first known report of a tornado in America, according to the