April 8, 1998: A Defining Day

April 8, 1998 was a day that defined our TV station, and to some degree, my career at the time. Our policy of aggressive, long form coverage during tornado warnings was relatively new since ABC 33/40 had been on the air for less than two years. The deal was that we go on the air, and stay on the air anytime any county within our television market is under a tornado warning. Doesn’t matter if the county is rural, or in the Birmingham metro.

Nobody else in the market was doing it; we were all alone at the time. Other stations could come and go during tornado warnings.

The policy paid off in many ways the night of April 8, 1998. We were on the air, non-stop, from 6:30 until almost midnight. Initially, we were there to warn people of a supercell storm that showed a very well defined tornado signature. Later, we were on the air to provide riveting video of the damage from the tornado, which would ultimately be rated EF-5, the most violent type of tornado known to man.

The tornado cut a 31-mile long, 3/4-mile wide swath through nine Birmingham suburbs including Oak Grove, Sylvan Springs, Rock Creek, Pleasant Grove, Concord, Maytown, Pratt City, and Edgewater before lifting in the western limits of the City of Birmingham. The worst of the destruction occurred across the Oak Grove, Rock Creek and McDonald Chapel areas.

Thirty-two people were killed in this tornado including three in Oak Grove, eleven near Rock Creek, four in Sylvan Springs, two in Wylam Heights, nine in Edgewater, two in McDonald Chapel and one in West Ensley.

The same parent storm would drop another tornado that killed two more people in St. Clair County near Wattsville.

Category: ALL POSTS, Met 101/Weather History