1/29/1936: Birmingham’s Second Biggest Snowfall

Click to enlarge weather map from January 30, 1936

On January 18, 1936, a swarm of tornadoes ripped across parts of Alabama. Four people died as an F2 tornado passed from near Fyffe to near Rainsville in DeKalb County, killing four people. Another twister touched down near Columbiana. One person died from a tornado in Dale County.

The activity was ahead of a powerful cold front. It would be followed by a a ten day siege of winter weather that would be remembered for decades across Alabama.

Headlines on Sunday, January 26th noted that the upper Midwest was bracing for a brutal assault of frigid air. Photos of cars abandoned in snowdrifts in Birmingham’s industrial sister city of Pittsburgh dominated the front page of the “South’s Greatest Newspaper, the Birmingham News….” Light snows fell across parts of North Alabama that night.

The News from January 27th warned that the local Weather Bureau forecaster was calling for lows of 2F to 8F that night in the Magic City.

On Tuesday, January 28, 1936, dramatic headlines reported that four children had died in Birmingham the night before from suffocating in their cribs under heavy blankets. There was a serious coal shortage, and the local fire chief also warned about the danger of house fires. The morning low in Birmingham was actually 13F.

The U.S. Weather Bureau weather map for the morning of Wednesday, January 29, 1936 showed a low pressure system over the western Gulf of Mexico. A large shield of precipitation was spreading up into the cold air ahead of the low. Snow began falling in Birmingham at 7:46 a.m.

The afternoon edition of The News said that the local weatherman called for it to continue through the night. It did, and did not end until 720 a.m. on Thursday.

At 7 a.m. CST on Thursday, it was 26F in Birmingham with a strong northerly wind and eleven inches of snow on the ground. It would be the city’s greatest snowfall until the March Blizzard of 1993 in the Magic City. Snow fell as far south as Brweton.

Other amounts across the state: Tuscaloosa 8 inches; Montgomery 3/4 of an inch; Gadsden 9 inches; Huntsville 9 inches; Decatur 7 inches; Anniston 10 inches and Selma 1 inch. Under the deep snow cover and clear skies, the mercury would fall to –4F at Birmingham the following morning.

Category: Met 101/Weather History