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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Land Shark who wrote (34369)	6/30/2011 4:11:50 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 36917

From 1748 to 1782: A time for tornadoes gee made man global warming ?? you think ?? In mass. no less. must have been the injuns The American 1700s usually bring thoughts of colonial times, the French and Indian War, etc. However many notable tornadoes were recorded during this time. In July 1748 one of these notable tornadoes made its course through Groton (now Pepperell), Massachusetts. This tornado dubbed the Pepperell Tornado was reported to have torn up large trees by their roots and carried them a large distance from the place they started. This tornado entirely demolished three buildings, removed roofs from many other buildings, and lifted structures off of their foundations and moved them a few feet away. According to the accounts given no lives were lost, but large damage was made leaving these poor people to clean up the Pepperell Tornado’s aftermath. At Leicester, Massachusetts, on July 10, 1759, a tornado passed through. This tornado, or as John Winthrop (a direct descendant of Governor Winthrop) called it “a terrible whirlwind” moved along form southwest to northwest. The tornado tore many trees up from their roots and proceeded toward the house of a man named David Lynde. The tornado was apparently strong enough to do massive damage to this house. Fourteen people occupied the house at the time the tornado struck and one man even lost his life. He was in the west-chamber of the house and was thrown a great distance. When he was found his back, thighs, and arms were broken and he soon passed away. An amazing story was told of one child in the house that was next to a chimney when the tornado hit. The chimney collapsed on the child but a board that was wedged over her protected her form being killed by the chimney ruins. After reporting about this tornado John Winthrop tried to figure out what caused these “terrible whirlwinds.” He said concerning the reasoning behind tornadoes “It appears to me so difficult to assign a cause adequate to these effects, to show by what means a small body of air could be put into a circular motion, so exceedingly rapid as this must have been, that I dare not venture any conjectures about it.” Obviously at this time no one understood the mystery behind tornadoes. On August 14, 1773 the first instrumental documentation of a tornado occurred in America. Prof. Samuel Williams documented this tornado, which formed as a waterspout on the Merrimac River south of Salisbury. This waterspout moved northwestward and came on land at Amesbury point. Samuel Williams recorded that before the waterspout appeared in just a period of about 4 minutes the wind blew violently southwest and then suddenly blew west-northwest. After blowing this direction for a couple of minutes the wind died down completely and it became still. After these sudden wind changes it became very dark and the waterspout began its life. When it came onto land at Amesbury it leveled well built houses. Although it destroyed many houses and buildings and threw things thither and yon no one was killed. It was reported that the number of buildings damaged was about 120. In the year 1782 tornadoes erupted in the month of May. On May 23 a violent tornado hit Berkshire County, Massachusetts. It tore trees out of the ground and moved a two-story house from its foundation. Another house was moved about 20 feet. Both of these houses were completely destroyed. Also on May 23 in Vermont a tornado spread destruction through Manchester where it did great damage to grain buildings. On another date in May 1782 a tornado hit New Hampshire. This tornado destroyed fields of grain before coming to buildings that it demolished. It is reported that every barn or building that stood in its way was completely leveled. One man, Mr. Spencer, tried to escape his house before the tornado hit. He grabbed his daughter and he and his wife tried to hurry out. However it was too late. The tornado hit and they were buried in the rubble. The poor child died in the man’s arms. He however was not injured. His wife was injured, but not critically.