This
is tornado season in the United States and reports have been frequent informing
us of carnage and death. The most recent, as of this date, was
a storm that struck several mid-western and southern
states resulting in the deaths of 16 people. One series of storms in Texas cut
a swath over 30 miles long and 15 miles wide – fortunately (though not for
those whose properties were damaged) mostly in rural areas where fewer people
might be affected.
Tornadoes
are common on the North American plains, and world-wide for that matter.
Reports from long ago are not abundant but we do know that such events were
recognized as far back as the middles ages. One of the earliest reports from Britain’s
is of a F4-strength tornado that struck London, England in
1091. Many buildings and bridges sustained significant damage.
An
apparent tornado was reported to have occurred in what is now the Mexico
City area in 1521, two day before the Aztec capital was taken by Hernán Cortés.
The
deadliest tornado in recorded history struck Bangladesh
on 26 April 1989, killing approximately 1,300 people. The most extensive outbreak
occurred in 2011 when 362 tornadoes were counted in the southern, mid-western and
northeastern United States (the 2011 Super Outbreak).
Over 300 people died. The deadliest storm in America happened in 1925 when almost
750 people lost their lives.
There
is a great deal of information about tornadoes from recent centuries, as they
have played a huge role in the settlement of the central part of the North
American continent. The United States leads the world in the number of these
storms. More storms have been counted in recent years although that may have
more to do with the great numbers of people and communities inhabiting the
areas in which they hit and in the more developed technical methods of
observing the storms. There is no trend in the numbers for at least the last
55 years in which there have been detailed statistics kept. If anything,
the strongest tornadoes have decreased in frequency.
Tornadoes
and other major storms have always been part of weather patterns and human
history. I mentioned the hurricane that flattened Galveston, Texas in 1900 in a
previous blog post - Natural
Disasters and Family Misfortunes: Galveston 1900. This was just one of
many large and deadly storms that have affected lives around the world over the
centuries. I wrote about the consequences of one severe storm that devastated
southern England in 1703, in an April 2014 blog post on The Pharos Blog – Natural
Disasters and Their Effect on the Lives of Our Ancestors.
Sometimes
it does not take a major weather event to disrupt families and cause them to
make changes. One of my uncles came to Alberta from Oregon to try his hand at farming in
1931. He settled with his new wife on land he leased in the Crossfield area,
just north of Calgary, and set out to become fully Canadian. His oldest child,
my cousin, was born in the Irricana area in 1932. Unfortunately, in the summer
of his first year a hail storm, not uncommon in that region, destroyed his
entire crop. My uncle decided there and then that farming in Alberta was not
for him and he moved his family back to the United States. This was just one
minor incidence in the history of our family but it had profound effects on the
people involved as well as impacting future generations of people in some
family branches. My cousin grew up and made his life in a country he was not
born into.
All
of this is to say that family historians searching for information about their
ancestors might be advised to pay attention to natural phenomena, perhaps in
particular how events such as major storms impacted the lives and livelihoods
of people and communities. How many family lines were affected or even ended
when a tornado touched down?
Wayne
Shepheard is a retired geologist and active genealogist. He volunteers with the
Online Parish Clerk
program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a
number of articles about various aspects of genealogy in several family history
society journals. Wayne has also served as an editor of two such publications.
He provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.
