Birmingham’s 1963 Election Day Tornadoes

On this date in 1963, voters trekked to the polls in great numbers to vote in the mayor’s race in Birmingham, despite a steady rain. The heated mayoral race pitted attorney Albert Boutwell, Tom King, J.T. Waggoner and Commissioner Bull Conner.

Cuba dominated the headlines, with stories about Castro, reconnaissance flights over the island nation and the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion. I-59 was still proposed northeast of Roebuck to Argo. The Argo to Springville section was already complete.

The winter had been mild. So much so that the Weather Bureau reported that the winter of 1962-63 had been the coldest on record in Birmingham. The afternoon edition of The Birmingham News warned that the city was under a storm alert until 8 p.m. The front page article reported that the U.S. Weather Bureau expected thunderstorms that were entering West Alabama to intensify and become severe. The piece went on to say that there was a risk of one or two tornadoes between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

The AP Wirephoto on the weather page showed the culprit: a low pressure system over western Tennessee. From the low, a cold front trailed southward into eastern Texas. A warm front was moving northward over Alabama. It was a classic setup for severe weather. Headlines on the weather page told of a major snowstorm over the Rockies and the Midwest.

Temperatures were in the muggy 70s about 3:35 p.m. when a tornado sizzled down near Bessemer. It moved northeast, remaining on the ground for fifteen miles, tearing through Homewood and into Mountain Brook. Bessemer was the hardest hit, with the worst damage along second and third avenues between 19th and 21st streets. Fortunately, the F3 tornado killed no one, but thirty five people were injured along its path.

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