Alabama weather can be volatile and brutal, especially during the summer heat. A temperature of 84°F with humidity of 100 percent can make the heat index 104 degrees, leading to outdoor activities becoming dangerous from the strenuous heat. With heat like that, the air can be like walking into a wall.
However, this heat is nothing new. An article published in The Birmingham Age-Herald in 1901 recounted a heatwave in 1876, “when thousands of people died from the intense heat.” The heat spell began on June 24th and lasted for twenty-eight days, ending on July 21 making the average maximum temperature 89.6°F. For comparison, July 2022 was the third hottest month on record with the average high in Birmingham being 90°F.
Also, from The Birmingham Age-Herald on July 31st, 1917, when the country was also experiencing a massive heat wave, the high was 96°F with a low of 73 and relative humidity at 85. Sounds much like the weather on an average day in July.
It is hard to imagine how people kept cool in a time before air conditioning. Often windows of the house would be opened to continuously allow air to move through, especially at night to allow the cooler night air to flow in.
When it comes to the cooler weather, everyone remembers Snowmageddon in 2014, when a few snowflakes turned into an ice storm that shut down the highways. People ended up stranded in their cars and children became stuck at school having to spend the night; some people even had to walk home in the blistering cold.
There was also the Blizzard of 1993, known as the 1993 Storm of the Century. This was a cyclonic storm that formed over the Gulf of Mexico and, at its most intense, stretched from Canada to Honduras, bringing intense snowfall across the South. During March 12-13, Alabama received 12 straight hours of heavy snow, giving all 67 counties a share. In some places, 2-3 inches came down each hour. The greatest amount of snow fell at Mount LeConte in Tennessee at 50 inches, while Birmingham recorded a rare 13 inches of snow while other parts of the state got up to 17 inches.
During what some call Tornado Terror, the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado of 2011 is the most remembered twister by Alabamians of the 2011 Super Outbreak. The EF4 tornado touched down outside of Tuscaloosa and tracked through the city before moving northeast through Birmingham, taking the lives of 64 people, including six students of the University of Alabama. The tornado grew to a width of 1.5 miles and left an 80.7-mile path of destruction costing $2.4 billion in damage.
However, the Tuscaloosa tornado was not the deadliest, Alabama suffered through tornadoes much more violent. During the 2011 super outbreak an EF5 wedge tornado touched down and tracked through northern Alabama before dissipating in southern Tennessee. The tornado claimed the lives of 72 people, making it the deadliest in Alabama history.
While the weather in Alabama has proven quite volatile and harsh, it has never dampened the spirits of Alabamians. Even after the strongest winds they have rebuilt better.
Top photo caption: Satellite image of the 1993 snow storm. [NASA, Public Domain]
About the Author
John Morgan Underwood is a student at the University of Alabama majoring in English.
