The Tuesday afternoon map discussion video is on the server:
http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/video.hrb
What a great article by J.B. Elliott (the post below this one) on the March 21, 1932 Alabama tornado outbreak. That is the best narrative I have ever seen on the event, which is our state's worst tornado disaster. Don't forget we have a story on a man who survived one of those tornadoes (he was 4 at the time) coming up on our Storm Alert 2006 TV special on ABC 33/40 this Sunday evening from 6:00 until 7:00. J.B. was intervewed as part of the story. Don't miss it...
ALL IS QUIET: Birmingham soared to 69 degrees at 12:00 noon today, but we are now down to 64, and I sure get the idea that 69 degrees will be the high for the entire week. Much cooler air will roll in here tonight, and the rest of the week will be cool and dry with temperatures a good 10 to 15 degrees below normal for mid to late March in Alabama.
Some clouds will move in here on Thursday in advance of a fairly strong short wave, but no moisture means no rain for northern half of the state. Looks like the rain with that feature will be confined to the southern third of Alabama, and down into the Gulf of Mexico.
Looks like a good chance of a light freeze early tomorrow morning, as well as Friday and Saturday morning. Highs will be in the cool 50s every day for the rest of the week; we should finally get back into the 60s late this weekend on Sunday.
NEXT RAIN: Still looks like the next round of rain and storms will come one week from today, Tuesday March 28. The 12Z run of the GFS is also advertising rain and storms on March 30 and April 2. March and April are the two wettest months of the year in Alabama... so frequent rain events are to be expected right now.
I will have the next map discussion video on the server by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow!
Calm Days In the Weather Office
March 21, 2006, 2:47 pmAlabama's Greatest Tornado Disaster--March 21, 1932
March 21, 2006, 11:23 am
Today is the 74th anniversary of what I consider Alabama's all-time disaster when it comes to tornadoes. It happened on March 21, 1932 about three weeks before I was born. Yes, even worse than the Super Outbreak of April 3-4, 1974. Here is a story I wrote in 1989 for the statewide Alabama weather wire about three months before I retired from the NWS. It is called Alabama's Worst Tornado Day.
March 20, 1932 dawned warm and springlike across Alabama. By afternoon, temperatures had soared into the 80s over most of the state.
It was a Sunday. The Birmingham News featured a front page story saluting the arrival of spring. Spring was scheduled for 1:54pm that same day.
Said the News, "Spring will bring thoughts of love to the young men and thoughts of new clothes to women. Baseball is in the air, new clothes are on the streets, Easter is only a week away and Spring is on her throne."
But disaster lurked in the wings.
And next day it hit...deadly tornadoes...the greatest catastrophe ever to hit Alabama.
Official U. S. Weather Bureau tabulations said that 268 persons were killed in Alabama with 1,874 injured. However, I spent an entire day at the public library scanning all of the old microfilms of the Birmingham News and Birmingham Age Herald (yes, we once had a great morning paper called the Age Herald). Those seem to indicate that about 300 Alabamians killed and 3,000 were injured.
It was around 3:30 in the afternoon on that fateful Monday, Monday March 21 when the first black funnels came pounding to the ground in the Demopolis, Linden, Faunsdale areas of West-Central Alabama. Death came to 36 people in Marengo County, 136 were injured and 180 homes were destroyed.
Then came the disaster at Tuscaloosa and Northport.
A clock at the demolished Tuscaloosa Country Club stopped at 4:01pm--about 30 minutes after the first strikes near Demopolis.
After striking the western end of Tuscaloosa, the death-dealing tornado plowed across the Warrior River and into Northport. We do not have any witness reports if the tornado had time to look more like a waterspout as it crossed the river. Witnesses did say that it was shaped like an ice cream cone when it moved through the heart of Northport, because it was so filled with debris that it had an eerie white glow resembling a heavy snow shower moving in on the city.
But it was not snow.
Thirty-eight persons died in Northport and 250 were injured. Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa was quickly filled to capacity. The Unviersity of Alabama gymnasium was pressed into service as an emergency additional hospital.
Reported the Tuscaloosa News, "It looked as if Northport had been bombed."
Only one hour later...still more disaster. A path of destruction 20 miles long was cut across Cullman County. It left 23 dead and 300 injured with the Fairview Community hardest hit.
The tragic day continued to unfold. Tornadoes struck in Alabama from 3:30 in the afternoon to 7:00 in the evening. A broad area received heavy damage, generally from Demopolis on the SW to Scottsboro, Stevenson and Paint Rock in NE Alabama.
Chilton County in Central Alabama, was hit extremely hard with 58 person killed. The Union Grove community near Jemison was laid to waste. Doctors and nurses from Montgomery and Birmingham worked all night by lantern and flashlight to relieve the widespread suffering.
In Clay County, one of the tornadoes remained on the ground for a distance of 30 miles cutting a path 400 yards wide. A new automobile was carried through the air for a distance of 400 yards. Twelve persons died in Clay County and 200 were injured. After the storm, there were people living in the Clay County Courthouse as a refugee center.
Odd happenings were too numerous to mention, but we did want to mention this one. At Columbiana in Shelby County where 18 persons died, 36 eggs were unbroken on a kitchen table even though the house was totally demolished and the tornado even sucked a drawer out of the table.
Alabama Governor B. M. Miller immediately issued a proclamation calling on all Alabama residents to rise to the occasion and help those in distress. Then he immediately traveled the state for days trying to visit all of the damaged areas and to offer help and encouragement.
No one knows exactly how many tornadoes hit Alabama on that tragic day in 1932. In Perry County, Marion was struck twice in three hours and 23 persons died in the county.
Note: Somewhat like the Super Outbreak in 1974, two separate waves of tornadoes struck Alabama in 1932--the first wave started at midafternoon and the second wave after dark.
Near Faunsdale, in the NE corner of Marengo County between Demopolis and Uniontown, the owner of an 800 acre plantation, found a horse collar, a dead pig and a body of a three-year-old child all jammed together in a hollow tree stump.
PLEASE NOTE: This article is not intended by any means to be an all inclusive story. Much more damage occurred than we mentioned. Our thanks to John Seagale, who last night forwarded us a story from the Talladega Daily Home newspaper giving us some more information. Here are some excerpts:
* According to the March 24, 1932 edition of the Sylacauga Advance (a newspaper), the area experienced the biggest and most disastrous cyclone ever to pass through this section. It carried death and desolation in its wake over a great portion of Alabama and adjoining states.
* Several F4 tornadoes tore through Talladega and nearby counties, leaving close to 70 people dead and many more injured.
* The Sylacauga News, four days after the disaster, said that Talladega County was hit in several places, but Sylacauga seems to have suffered the greatest loss. In fact, according to published reports, the newspaper said the damage was greatest in the devastating track in deaths, injuries and destruction of property.
* Jimmy Hare of Quarry Road, was only six when one of the F4 tornadoes came through Sylacauga after 7:00pm. "I went with my dad to milk a cow in the backyard before dark," he said. "My dad was talking about bad weather coming, but he was not thinking about any of that." He and his father returned to the house where they rode out the storm with Hare's mother, sister and uncle. "We heard something coming and it sounded just like a train coming down the road," he said. He and his family survived, but their home was destroyed. It did not leave them with anything except the floor.
* According to statistics obtained by the Talladega County EMA, through the National Weather Service, 29 people were killed within the city limits of Sylacauga with 11 dead in rural areas around the city.
* According to the March 24, 1932 Sylacauga Advance, "The whole of upper Broadway and Main streets suffered greatly. The grammar school building was unroofed and almost totally destroyed, while the junior high was unroofed and otherwise damaged.
The above excerpts from a very interesting article by Gabe Carpenter in yesterday's Daily Home.
FINAL NOTES
...One of these days, I wish I could write a book about that event, but I haven't even started on my book about my 32 years in the National Weather Service, which will be titled "Scatter Brains and Scattered Showers"
...I often wonder if they had communications in 1932 like we have today, including wall-to-wall TV coverage and wall-to-wall radio warnings, could the death and injury toll been greatly reduced. I am positive it could.
...It would be years before people like James Spann, Jerry Tracey, David Neal and David Sawyer would show up on this old earth.
...Back in 1932, there were very few telephones, no television, radio stations were few in number and most people traveled probably in a Ford Model T.
March 20, 1932 dawned warm and springlike across Alabama. By afternoon, temperatures had soared into the 80s over most of the state.
It was a Sunday. The Birmingham News featured a front page story saluting the arrival of spring. Spring was scheduled for 1:54pm that same day.
Said the News, "Spring will bring thoughts of love to the young men and thoughts of new clothes to women. Baseball is in the air, new clothes are on the streets, Easter is only a week away and Spring is on her throne."
But disaster lurked in the wings.
And next day it hit...deadly tornadoes...the greatest catastrophe ever to hit Alabama.
Official U. S. Weather Bureau tabulations said that 268 persons were killed in Alabama with 1,874 injured. However, I spent an entire day at the public library scanning all of the old microfilms of the Birmingham News and Birmingham Age Herald (yes, we once had a great morning paper called the Age Herald). Those seem to indicate that about 300 Alabamians killed and 3,000 were injured.
It was around 3:30 in the afternoon on that fateful Monday, Monday March 21 when the first black funnels came pounding to the ground in the Demopolis, Linden, Faunsdale areas of West-Central Alabama. Death came to 36 people in Marengo County, 136 were injured and 180 homes were destroyed.
Then came the disaster at Tuscaloosa and Northport.
A clock at the demolished Tuscaloosa Country Club stopped at 4:01pm--about 30 minutes after the first strikes near Demopolis.
After striking the western end of Tuscaloosa, the death-dealing tornado plowed across the Warrior River and into Northport. We do not have any witness reports if the tornado had time to look more like a waterspout as it crossed the river. Witnesses did say that it was shaped like an ice cream cone when it moved through the heart of Northport, because it was so filled with debris that it had an eerie white glow resembling a heavy snow shower moving in on the city.
But it was not snow.
Thirty-eight persons died in Northport and 250 were injured. Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa was quickly filled to capacity. The Unviersity of Alabama gymnasium was pressed into service as an emergency additional hospital.
Reported the Tuscaloosa News, "It looked as if Northport had been bombed."
Only one hour later...still more disaster. A path of destruction 20 miles long was cut across Cullman County. It left 23 dead and 300 injured with the Fairview Community hardest hit.
The tragic day continued to unfold. Tornadoes struck in Alabama from 3:30 in the afternoon to 7:00 in the evening. A broad area received heavy damage, generally from Demopolis on the SW to Scottsboro, Stevenson and Paint Rock in NE Alabama.
Chilton County in Central Alabama, was hit extremely hard with 58 person killed. The Union Grove community near Jemison was laid to waste. Doctors and nurses from Montgomery and Birmingham worked all night by lantern and flashlight to relieve the widespread suffering.
In Clay County, one of the tornadoes remained on the ground for a distance of 30 miles cutting a path 400 yards wide. A new automobile was carried through the air for a distance of 400 yards. Twelve persons died in Clay County and 200 were injured. After the storm, there were people living in the Clay County Courthouse as a refugee center.
Odd happenings were too numerous to mention, but we did want to mention this one. At Columbiana in Shelby County where 18 persons died, 36 eggs were unbroken on a kitchen table even though the house was totally demolished and the tornado even sucked a drawer out of the table.
Alabama Governor B. M. Miller immediately issued a proclamation calling on all Alabama residents to rise to the occasion and help those in distress. Then he immediately traveled the state for days trying to visit all of the damaged areas and to offer help and encouragement.
No one knows exactly how many tornadoes hit Alabama on that tragic day in 1932. In Perry County, Marion was struck twice in three hours and 23 persons died in the county.
Note: Somewhat like the Super Outbreak in 1974, two separate waves of tornadoes struck Alabama in 1932--the first wave started at midafternoon and the second wave after dark.
Near Faunsdale, in the NE corner of Marengo County between Demopolis and Uniontown, the owner of an 800 acre plantation, found a horse collar, a dead pig and a body of a three-year-old child all jammed together in a hollow tree stump.
PLEASE NOTE: This article is not intended by any means to be an all inclusive story. Much more damage occurred than we mentioned. Our thanks to John Seagale, who last night forwarded us a story from the Talladega Daily Home newspaper giving us some more information. Here are some excerpts:
* According to the March 24, 1932 edition of the Sylacauga Advance (a newspaper), the area experienced the biggest and most disastrous cyclone ever to pass through this section. It carried death and desolation in its wake over a great portion of Alabama and adjoining states.
* Several F4 tornadoes tore through Talladega and nearby counties, leaving close to 70 people dead and many more injured.
* The Sylacauga News, four days after the disaster, said that Talladega County was hit in several places, but Sylacauga seems to have suffered the greatest loss. In fact, according to published reports, the newspaper said the damage was greatest in the devastating track in deaths, injuries and destruction of property.
* Jimmy Hare of Quarry Road, was only six when one of the F4 tornadoes came through Sylacauga after 7:00pm. "I went with my dad to milk a cow in the backyard before dark," he said. "My dad was talking about bad weather coming, but he was not thinking about any of that." He and his father returned to the house where they rode out the storm with Hare's mother, sister and uncle. "We heard something coming and it sounded just like a train coming down the road," he said. He and his family survived, but their home was destroyed. It did not leave them with anything except the floor.
* According to statistics obtained by the Talladega County EMA, through the National Weather Service, 29 people were killed within the city limits of Sylacauga with 11 dead in rural areas around the city.
* According to the March 24, 1932 Sylacauga Advance, "The whole of upper Broadway and Main streets suffered greatly. The grammar school building was unroofed and almost totally destroyed, while the junior high was unroofed and otherwise damaged.
The above excerpts from a very interesting article by Gabe Carpenter in yesterday's Daily Home.
FINAL NOTES
...One of these days, I wish I could write a book about that event, but I haven't even started on my book about my 32 years in the National Weather Service, which will be titled "Scatter Brains and Scattered Showers"
...I often wonder if they had communications in 1932 like we have today, including wall-to-wall TV coverage and wall-to-wall radio warnings, could the death and injury toll been greatly reduced. I am positive it could.
...It would be years before people like James Spann, Jerry Tracey, David Neal and David Sawyer would show up on this old earth.
...Back in 1932, there were very few telephones, no television, radio stations were few in number and most people traveled probably in a Ford Model T.
by J.B. Elliott
in Weather History
An Old Fashioned Alabama Soaking
March 21, 2006, 10:43 am
We have over 80 rainfall reports this morning. We are drowning in reports (if you will excuse the pun)Instead of loading you down with such a list, we will post below selected and representative amounts. These are 24-hour totals through this morning unless noted:
2.09 inches at Birmingham Airport
1.81 at Anniston Airport
1.91 at Tuscaloosa Airport
2.01 at Shelby County Airport
1.74 at Montgomery Airport (Dannelly Field)
0.01 at Mobile Airport (yep, hardly any rain)
0.85 at Huntsville Airport
2.23 at Alexander City
2.72 in North Auburn
1.76 in Blount Springs
1.89 at Logan Martin Dam
1.83 at Childersburg
1.42 in Clanton
1.94 in Cordova
1.33 at Centre (Weiss Lake)
5.09 at Yates Dam (the largest amount I have seen)
0.77 at Fort Payne Airport
1.70 at Gadsden Steam Plant
3.02 at Haleyville
1.66 in Jasper
1.79 on Mt. Cheaha
1.50 in Oneonta
2.25 in Steele
2.13 in Pell City
1.35 in Roanoke
2.82 at Martin Dam
1.40 at Wadley
3.02 at Jordan Dam
1.91 at Helena, storm total 2.46 (from Brian Paters)
3.03 in Springville (Simmons Mountain, a beautiful spot)
1.89 in Bluff Park
1.78 in Pelham (storm total 2.26)
2.45 in Cottondale
1.93 in Greystone Cove (James Spann)
2.60 in Moundville
3.00 near where Jefferson-Blount-St. Clair join (thanks to Debby Clayton)
Can you explain to me the difference between an old-fashioned soaking and a new-fashioned soaking?
2.09 inches at Birmingham Airport
1.81 at Anniston Airport
1.91 at Tuscaloosa Airport
2.01 at Shelby County Airport
1.74 at Montgomery Airport (Dannelly Field)
0.01 at Mobile Airport (yep, hardly any rain)
0.85 at Huntsville Airport
2.23 at Alexander City
2.72 in North Auburn
1.76 in Blount Springs
1.89 at Logan Martin Dam
1.83 at Childersburg
1.42 in Clanton
1.94 in Cordova
1.33 at Centre (Weiss Lake)
5.09 at Yates Dam (the largest amount I have seen)
0.77 at Fort Payne Airport
1.70 at Gadsden Steam Plant
3.02 at Haleyville
1.66 in Jasper
1.79 on Mt. Cheaha
1.50 in Oneonta
2.25 in Steele
2.13 in Pell City
1.35 in Roanoke
2.82 at Martin Dam
1.40 at Wadley
3.02 at Jordan Dam
1.91 at Helena, storm total 2.46 (from Brian Paters)
3.03 in Springville (Simmons Mountain, a beautiful spot)
1.89 in Bluff Park
1.78 in Pelham (storm total 2.26)
2.45 in Cottondale
1.93 in Greystone Cove (James Spann)
2.60 in Moundville
3.00 near where Jefferson-Blount-St. Clair join (thanks to Debby Clayton)
Can you explain to me the difference between an old-fashioned soaking and a new-fashioned soaking?
Cool Days Ahead
March 21, 2006, 5:45 am
The Tuesday morning map discussion video is on the server:
http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/modeldata.hrb
All is calm in the weather office this morning after a very wet day yesterday. The GFS was the big winner on the QPF forecast yesterday; many spots did indeed go over two inches. Just checked my bucket here in northern Shelby County; the total here was 1.93". You can read our weather watcher reports here:
http://theweathercompany.com/cgi-bin/wxwatcher.pl
All of those reports come from our team of volunteer weather watchers... they do a great job for us.
DRIER DAYS: Not really sure we will see much sun today, but it should peek out at times. The rest of the week will feature dry but cool conditions; temperatures will be a good 10 to 15 degrees below normal for mid to late March in Alabama. Just about every monring we will have the potential for a light freeze, the coldest mornings will probably come early Friday and Saturday with lows in the 28 to 32 degree range for most places. You can forget the 70s and 80s for a while.
A short wave will pass through here on Thursday. We should see clouds with that feature, but for now it looks like the air will be too dry for rain. Some rain is a good bet over far South Alabama and the adjacent Gulf of Mexico waters.
WEEKEND PREVIEW: The weekend will be cool and dry; maybe we get into the 60s on Sunday.
NEXT RAIN: The GFS is advertising our next chance of showers and storms at the beginning of next week, perhaps Monday night or Tuesday. The system doesn't look overly impressive at the moment. Bottom line is that it looks like we get a good chance to catch our breath for the next six days or so.
PRIME TIME SPECIAL: Don't forget we have a one hour special coming up on ABC 33/40 this Sunday night from 6:00 until 7:00; it will feature all of the video elements used in this year's Storm Alert 2006 tour (see the post below this one).
I will have the next map discussion video loaded and ready to go by 3:30 this afternoon!
http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/modeldata.hrb
All is calm in the weather office this morning after a very wet day yesterday. The GFS was the big winner on the QPF forecast yesterday; many spots did indeed go over two inches. Just checked my bucket here in northern Shelby County; the total here was 1.93". You can read our weather watcher reports here:
http://theweathercompany.com/cgi-bin/wxwatcher.pl
All of those reports come from our team of volunteer weather watchers... they do a great job for us.
DRIER DAYS: Not really sure we will see much sun today, but it should peek out at times. The rest of the week will feature dry but cool conditions; temperatures will be a good 10 to 15 degrees below normal for mid to late March in Alabama. Just about every monring we will have the potential for a light freeze, the coldest mornings will probably come early Friday and Saturday with lows in the 28 to 32 degree range for most places. You can forget the 70s and 80s for a while.
A short wave will pass through here on Thursday. We should see clouds with that feature, but for now it looks like the air will be too dry for rain. Some rain is a good bet over far South Alabama and the adjacent Gulf of Mexico waters.
WEEKEND PREVIEW: The weekend will be cool and dry; maybe we get into the 60s on Sunday.
NEXT RAIN: The GFS is advertising our next chance of showers and storms at the beginning of next week, perhaps Monday night or Tuesday. The system doesn't look overly impressive at the moment. Bottom line is that it looks like we get a good chance to catch our breath for the next six days or so.
PRIME TIME SPECIAL: Don't forget we have a one hour special coming up on ABC 33/40 this Sunday night from 6:00 until 7:00; it will feature all of the video elements used in this year's Storm Alert 2006 tour (see the post below this one).
I will have the next map discussion video loaded and ready to go by 3:30 this afternoon!
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