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The Storm Record

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 13, 1882

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 8, No. 26.

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The Storm Record.

WE give below a resume of the severe storms for the past two weeks, as far as we have accounts of them:—
June 25.—Nebraska was visited by a storm of wind, rain, and hail. In Butler County, the damage to crops is estimated at half a million dollars, and in Saunders County, the ruin was almost complete. Numerous houses were wrecked, and several persons were killed and injured. There was also a tornado at Marysville, Kan., and one at Kerwin. Much damage was done at Decatur, Ind. Three people were killed. The loss at Indianapolis is said to be $50,000.
Near Lafayette, Ind., there was a water-spout that whirled rocks and trees along in its course. Hail accompanied it. Several persons were killed.
The storm on this day was spread over a large tract of country, being also very severe in Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio. Trenton, N. J., also suffered severely.
June 29.—There was a furious storm in Central Iowa, but, for the greater part of its course, it was in the air, not striking the ground except in a few places, when it demolished everything.
June 30.—An Oregon (Ill.) special says: "A storm of unequaled severity occurred to-day. The water rose on the flats, driving dozens of families from their homes. Fifteen buildings were struck by lightning. One man was killed, and many barns and out-buildings were carried away by the wind and flood. A score of bridges floated off. Hundreds of acres of grain were entirely ruined. Horses and cattle were killed by lightning in nearly every pasture, and $50,000 damage done to the city and vicinity. Miles of the track of the Chicago and Iowa railroad is impassable."
Coyleville, Pa., suffered from a terrible cyclone in the evening. The track of the storm was only about one-fourth of a mile wide, and ten miles long, but the damage in that territory was immense. About fifteen houses were wrecked, and from twenty-five to thirty persons killed and injured. In the track of the storm, scarcely a tree was left standing.
July 1.—A heavy storm prevailed throughout the northwest, and great damage was done to crops in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
A water-spout in Colorado did considerable damage to property. It was accompanied by hail. Several lives, it is not known how many, were lost.
Heavy rains that ruined crops, and caused streams to rise, thus doing great damage, are reported from various places.

PACIFIC COAST.

There has been nothing in California that would be noticeable for severity in the East, but the occurrences have been so peculiar as to excite considerable comment.
A water-spout broke in Tejon Canyon, in Kern County, Friday, June 30. The principal damage was done to an Indian settlement, several of the Indians being swept away. Many other cloud-bursts occurred in other parts of the county about the same time, in the foot-hills on the south and east sides of the valley, over a distance of forty miles, and in Walker's Basin. The ravines and gulches brought down torrents of water, and, in many places, the dry plains were covered with water, presenting the appearance of lakes.
July 2, a very heavy thunder-storm, accompanied by hail, occurred at Truckee. During this storm, a span of horses attached to a carriage, was killed by lightning, and the two occupants of the carriage were rendered insensible. In Lassen County, two men were killed by lightning.
The next day, three threshers at work near Stockton, were injured by a stroke of lightning. Heavy thunder was heard in many places.
When it is remembered that a few years ago thunder and lightning were unknown in California, the peculiarity of these cases is readily seen. Speaking of these storms, the S. F. Chronicle says:—
"Such phenomena have been common in Nevada, but they have been rare visitations on the western slope of the Sierra, and positively unknown in the Coast Range at this season of the year. This water-spout, or cyclone, was so much like those in Iowa, that persons will naturally ask whether we are to be afflicted in the same manner. Everything is so different from what we have been accustomed to as regards rain, wind, and sunshine, that it is uncertain what we can properly expect."