"Birmingham Tornado"
08 April 1998

The day of 8 April 1998 was a very stormy one for Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Showers and thunderstorms were widespread over southeast Alabama and southern Georgia early in the day, while widespread severe storms plagued north Mississippi, Georgia and hardest-hit Alabama that afternoon and evening. NCDC has 224 reports of severe weather from these states for 8 April, including 11 tornado reports with 2 being F5 in strength. Numerous were reports of hail, most over 1 inch in diameter, several up to 2.75 inches diameter.

The storms that day all formed in advance of a slow-moving system, consisting of a closed low in mid-levels, with its associated surface low and fronts. At 1200Z 8 April, the surface and mid-level centers of circulation were vertically stacked over eastern Iowa, with the surface front dropping south through eastern Texas. At the same time, there was lots of convection over southeast Alabama, south Georgia and the Florida panhandle, as dewpoints were in the upper 60's over the area. 1200Z RUC soundings from Tallahassee, FL and Macon, GA show deep moisture and show between 700-1000 J/Kg of CAPE. The convection spread northeast while intensifying and becoming widespread. Here at 1800Z, the precipitation covers half of Georgia and has spread over southern Alabama.

As this widespread storminess moved east, scattered storms began to develop over Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. A 2100Z Birmingham, Alabama RUC sounding shows veering winds from the surface up, and very good speed shear. The analysis of this sounding yields a LCL and LFC of about 850 mb, and generous CAPE. An actual 0000Z 9 April sounding from Birmingham shows an environment very capable of producing supercell development. Thus, it can be seen how these storms quickly became severe upon forming. Here at 0045Z 9 April, northern Alabama is deluged with severe storms, several supercellular.

All in all, the storms that evening took quite a toll. The widespread damages caused by winds in excess of 260 miles per hour and a damage path up to 3/4 mile wide in Jefferson County, Alabama, prompted visits from President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, while the affected counties were declared disaster areas. In the wake of these storms, 36 people lost their lives, 32 from the Oak Grove F5 tornado alone, 286 were injured, and damages were estimated in excess of $300 million.

Case Study 38