1876 Bowen tornado

In 1875, the Colony of Queensland received high amounts of downpour, being much more frequent than usual.^[6] Followed into early 1876, a sudden drought occurred,^[7] 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.^[8] 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,^[6][7] there was also a presumed abundance of tropical cyclones forming. Particularly, the theory points out that there could have been one broad tropical low that originated in the Gulf of Carpentaria crossed over into Queensland, not doing much on its own, but happened to provide lift and vertical wind shear that was missing.^{[4][citation needed]} However, there is no proof that any sort of tropical low had anything to do with the event.

With the unstable conditions in play, this allowed and ultimately caused the formation of a supercell nearby Bowen, likely from the north, where it approached and terrorised the town. The tornado was caused by what was described as an unexpected and somewhat brief violent hurricane – which today's evidence shows was likely a supercell thunderstorm coming from the Coral Sea up north.^[5][9]

On 16 February, at approximately 9:00 pm,^[1] 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.^[10] This thundercloud was accompanied by strong, circular-moving wind gusts coming from the storm's mesocyclone.^[c] 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.^[11][4]

Many witnesses noted that the tornado was remarkably short lived. Most people stated that it lasted somewhere between 30 and 60 seconds, which would place it among the shortest-lived F5 tornadoes on record, whilst others said it probably lasted up to 3 minutes.^[5][11] The tornado's damage was so grim and documented so well that the Bureau of Meteorology would eventually rate it F5; placing the tornado's estimated wind speed of at least 420 km/h (260 mph) and cementing it as the strongest tornado in Australian history.^[2] 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.

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 7 feet (2.1 m) 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 8 feet (2.4 m) 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.^[3] By the end, only three houses remained standing in the town.^[11][12] 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.^[4][13]

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.^[3] Upon the destruction of the School of Arts and the local hospital, patients were forced to temporarily move to an old store to remain in safe and secure positions, until being prepared to move into a suitable location.^[13] On 23 February, the Mayor of Brisbane announced that a meeting was held at the local Chamber of Commerce, where he considered the best methods of assistance to help the community in Bowen. He thought that it would be best to hold a public meeting with the citizens of Brisbane to get their opinions, hoping that people had sympathy for the ones in need.^[13] Ultimately, the mayor of Brisbane ended up donating a significant yet ambiguous amount of money to Bowen. The impact of the tornado was so well documented, and was described with such a severe manner, that the Bureau of Meteorology rated the tornado at F5, the highest rating on the Fujita scale, cementing it as the strongest tornado in Australian history according to their archive.^[2]

The Bureau of Meteorology's analysis of the tornado on the Severe Storms Archive is quite controversial. The archive lists the tornado's date of occurrence as 22 February 1876,^[2] however many primary sources usually state the date as 16 February in the form of last Wednesday or yesterday.^[3][4] The origin of the BoM's inaccurate date is unknown, but likely takes the date from The Queenslander's article, given the text was published on the 22 February. Alongside the incorrect date, the BoM also accidentaly labelled the event unfolding in Brisbane rather than Bowen, for the same reasons. The BoM's F5 assessment is also debatable. According to the scale, an F5 tornado inflicts catastrophic damage to well built homes, specifically taking off their foundations before obliterating them midair, going by modern architectural standards.^[14] At the time, it was quite common in Australia to construct buildings of timber due to it being affordable and easy to shape.^[15] 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.

• 1764 Woldegk tornado, the first tornado to be rated IF5 and T11
• Greensburg tornado, the first tornado to be rated EF5
• 1882 Grinnell tornado, the first documented F5 tornado in the US
• 1992 Bucca tornado
• Bulahdelah tornado
• Brighton tornado
• List of Australian tornadoes
• History of Bowen
• Colony of Queensland, The British colony the tornado occurred in at the time