U.S. Weather Bureau Office at Little Rock

The U.S. Weather Bureau Office at Little Rock opened on July 1, 1879. During a devastating storm which struck the city's downtown on October 2, 1894 the office recorded the nation's first reliable measurement of barometric pressure change from a direct tornado strike. The funnel of the cyclone may have passed directly over the local U.S. Weather Bureau office occupied by George S. Harkness at 8:28 PM. Harkness recorded a 0.38 inch pressure drop on his Richards barograph machine.

References

• "Cyclone at Little Rock; The State Penitentiary and Insane Asylum Wrecked," New York Times, October 3, 1894.
• "Cyclone in Arkansas; It Destroys Much Property and Many Lives are Lost," Aspen Weekly Times (Col.), October 6, 1894.
• Michele G. Melaragno, Severe Storm Engineering for Structural Design (Taylor & Francis, 1995), 126.
• "Three Dead, Seven Missing; Besides Thirty-Five Injured at Little Rock, Ark.," New York Times, October 3, 1894.
• "Wrecked by a Tornado; The Business Part of Little Rock Devastated," Cranbury Press (N.J.), October 12, 1894.