Only a handful of tornadoes each year cause loss of life and/or significant property damage- and such storms are certainly a significant part of American history. But a particularly costly storm in 1948 not only made history, it changed our very understanding of tornadoes themselves, resulting in the first tornado forecast.
In August of 1918, as the armies of Europe neared exhaustion, American troops of the 28th “Keystone” division were thrown into a nearly forgotten battle that fully represented the horrors of the War to End All Wars.
Of the vaunted ironclad warships of the US Civil War perhaps the mightiest and most terrifying was the confederate ram Tennessee. On August 5, 1864, she would be put to the test in the largest naval engagement of the war, an engagement that defined the divided loyalties of the War of the Rebellion.