4/1/1974: A Cruel April Fools’ Joke

On Monday, April 1, 1974, Mother Nature played a cruel April Fools’ joke on Alabama.

Image Courtesy Mike Wilhelm

That morning, a warm and humid airmass was in place across the state. At 6 a.m., the temperature at Birmingham was 66F with a dewpoint of 64F. At the surface, a low pressure system was centered over northeastern Missouri. A cold front trailed southwestward to just east of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. In the mid-levels of the atmosphere, at 500 millibars, or about 18,000 feet, a trough of low pressure was swinging through the Plains states.

It would be a warm day with temperatures in the 80s. The high at Birmingham was a balmy 86F. It was 87F in Montgomery. The stage was set for thunderstorms in the warm sector of the low over Alabama and the Deep South. I remember the night clearly. I was 12 years old and very anxious about tornadoes. I am not quite sure what made me that way, but the chance of severe weather always meant a worrisome night.

The Billy Graham Crusade was on television. I remember keeping the window open to listen for the sound of thunder or something worse. A strong southerly windy made the curtains blow in the breeze.

The evening passed with tornado watches and warnings. A couple of tornadoes skipped across the state. One was uncomfortably close to home in Blount County. It moved along an 18 miles path from Hayden to Locust Fork to Oneonta. Three houses and 13 mobiles were destroyed. Most of the damage was at a mobile home park on Highway 79 near Oneonta. Eleven people were injured.

The most newsworthy tornado of the evening occurred around 9 p.m. It touched down in the Sherwood and Research Park sections of western and northwestern Huntsville. One man died in a mobile home north of Huntsville.

But the damage would be nothing compared to what would follow two days later. The April 3, 1974 Superoutbreak would cause 148 tornadoes in 24 hours killing 319 people. Alabama would be one of the hardest hit states, with 77 fatalities from at least 10 tornadoes across the northern part of the state, including three 5 tornadoes, one F4 and 2 F3 tornadoes.

Category: ALL POSTS, Met 101/Weather History