1876 Bowen tornado

In 1875, the Colony of Queensland received high amounts of downpour, being much more frequent than usual. Followed into early 1876, a sudden drought occurred, displaying that the colony was experiencing unusual tropical conditions. This drought created an unstable atmosphere as well as producing a high Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) level - providing the necessary conditions for stable and strong upward convection currents. It is ambiguous what meteorological event provided the lift and vertical wind shear, of which the presence is needed to create strong thunderstorms, but there is a few theories that fill in the gaps. The most popular theory suggests that due to the unstable conditions, ==Tornado summary==

On 16 February, at approximately 9:00 pm, several people reported hearing distant yet frequent thunder coming from the north. This same thunder came from what witnesses called a violent hurricane, although was likely a supercell. As the cell crawled towards Bowen, the thunder continued to get increasingly louder as on its southward approach to the small town of 717 residents. This thundercloud was accompanied by strong, circular-moving wind gusts coming from the storm's mesocyclone. It was also noted that the rotating winds were getting stronger on the cell's approach. At approximately 9:45 pm, a funnel started to drop out of the cloud upon the northern coastline of Bowen, amid intense weather conditions. A little over a minute later, the rapidly strengthening tornado directly struck the small community, upon producing great destruction of the entire town. Witnesses noted it was roughly a quater-mile wide (200 m) at it's largest. Only 30 seconds after reaching into the town, the tornado had reached the coastline and therefore completing it's impact. Briefly later, only 3 minutes after it all started, the tornado was last spotted over the water where it eventually dissipated. The agency accidentally labelled it as to occur in Brisbane, but many sources display damage in Bowen. The approximate path length of the tornado is 5 km (3.1 mi), though the tornado's true path length would be much shorter. ==Impact==

A dozen homes, a hotel, a brick shop, dwelling and bakery were all destroyed. The floor of a house with a man inside was driven into a lock-up fence; without injury. A hospital in the town was also destroyed, where multiple injuries would take place. A store was shifted on its foundation; with its veranda being blown away, as well as a portion of a boarding house. A hotel was also blown away, with a few cottages being considerably damaged. The walls of the Lands Office buckled and the roof fell inside, destroying a considerable amount of furniture. Another house was shifted off its supports, and carried approximately before being set down, remaining somewhat intact. It was also reported that a horse was killed after a flying sheet of iron cut it in two. By the end, only three houses remained standing in the town. Overall, one person lost their life, numerous people would be injured and £7,000 of damage was dealt; equivalent to £1.05 million (GBP) and $2.05 million (AUD) today when adjusted for inflation. ==Aftermath==

Following the damaging impact of the tornado, many newspapers reported on the severity of the event, most notably when The Queenslander published a long and detailed summary of the event 6 days later. At the time, it was quite common in Australia to construct buildings of timber due to it being affordable and easy to shape. Due to this factor, it is debated by many people that the Bowen tornado was not worthy for the F5 rating, rather deserving an F3 or F4 rating instead. == See also ==