A beautiful representation of a tornado near Hague (Netherlands) on July 1751 by the Dutch lawyer Jan Francois Dryfhout. This is one of the very few representations of tornadoes from the 18th Century (the majority of the depictions from this period were for waterspouts). The case was not included by Wegener in his collection of tornadoes and waterspouts in Europe (Wegener 1917).
Fig. 1 - Plate I from Dryfhout (1757) showing the evolution of a tornado near Hague on July 1751 (courtesy of Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent).
The first Plate (Fig. 1) shows the evolution of the tornado from growth to decay (Plate I, Figs. I–V). Figure V show the final stage when the tornado was drifting out to sea "having lost its upright posture, [it] was blown upward toward south, in the manner of a fluttering ribbon" (Leighly 1974).
Fig. 2 - Plate II from Dryfhout (1757) showing the parent cloud of a tornado near Hague on July 1751 (courtesy of Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent).
The second Plate (Fig. 2) shows the parent cloud of the tornado and suggest the presence of mammatus clouds (see Schultz et al. 20056 for a review). Dryfhout describes the parent cloud as "composed of a great number of smaller cloudlets, resembling round balls" (Leighly 1974).
The complete description of this event can be found here. Unfortunately I can not read Dutch, but I would be very gratefully for any help on obtaining more details about this tornado (and maybe we can write a short article about it).
source: Dryfhout, J. F.: Nauuwkeurige beschouwinge van een hoos, benevens een ondersoek,
hoe dezelve geboren worden en werken (A detailed examination of a tornado formation and additional research on how they form and function). Verhandelingen uitgegeven door de Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen te Haarlem, 3, 321–377. (PDF via Google Books).
References
Leighly, J., 1974: An Early Drawing and Description of a Tornado, Isis, 65, 474–486. (link)
Wegener, A. L., 1917: Wind- und Wasserhosen in Europa. Vieweg, Braunschweig, 301 pp. (link)
