The 1940 Cold Wave and Snow

The war in Europe and a growing rift between the U.S. and Japan dominated headlines in January 1940. Finland was being invaded by the Russians. Sub nets were being prepared to protect coastal harbors from the growing German U-boat threat. Belgium and the Netherlands were massing soldiers to protect against an inevitable Nazi invasion. Japanese/American trade negotiations were breaking down. There were questions about whether FDR would be reelected in November. Closer to home, a set of quintuplets had been born to a family in Nauvoo. They were the toast of the town. Birmingham was leading the nation in steelmaking capacity, with its mills operating at 94% of capacity.

War and politics did nominate the news until Mother Nature decided to take over. The front page of the afternoon Birmingham News on Thursday, January 18th mentioned that temperatures in Minnesota had plunged to -30F. The Magic City recorded a high of 57F on Wednesday before a cold front arrived.

E.C. Horton, the Chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau Office was as big a personality as James Spann is today. Everyone in the city hung on his every word in the local newspapers. And he was forecasting a severe cold wave on the afternoon of the 18th. He called for an overnight low of 4F to 12F. By Friday morning the 19th, the mercury at the Weather Office in Fountain Heights had plunged to 2F, the coldest since 1918. Muscle Shoals dropped to – 5F. One half inch of snow had dusted the city. Weatherman Horton predicted lows near zero overnight with fair skies. On Saturday, the paper trumpeted that winter had loosened its icy grip. The mercury soared to 30F after a morning low of 8F. Schools had burned on Friday in DeKalb, Coosa and Elmore Counties as fires were stoked out of control in response to the cold. Joe DiMaggio was about to accept a $30,000 salary from t he Yankees. Churchill was urging neutral European nations to enter the war against Hitler.

On Sunday the 21st, increasing clouds and warmth was in the forecast. Then and now photos of President Roosevelt showed how much he had aged since election in 1932. Surveys indicated that 36 percent of Americans supported a return to Prohibition. Three states, including Mississippi were still dry. An editorial warned that the U.S. had nothing to gain and everything to lose in a European War. Birmingham’s Public Health Officer went on record saying that there was no evidence that the city’s smoke problem was unhealthful. The thermometer climbed to 37F in Birmingham on Sunday afternoon. Monday would see a high of 42F. Plumbers were doing a land office business repairing thawing pipes that had burst. There were interesting developments over the western Gulf. A strong low was developing. Snow was falling at Galveston and Port Arthur. Mr. Horton’s forecast called for rain and snow to return Monday night with a low between 16-22. The snow began at 9:55 p.m. Monday night.

By Tuesday afternoon, ten inches of snow was on the ground at the Airport and more was forecast. Mr. Horton said it was the largest snow in Birmingham since 1936, when eleven inches fell. All roads into and out of the city were glazed with a thick layer of ice. Ethelsville reported 14 inches of snow. The entire state was blanketed. Other amounts included 9 inches at Gadsden, 7.5 inches at Anniston, 6 inches at Tuscaloosa and Decatur, 4 inches at Butler, 3 inches at Florence. A foot snow had fallen at Columbus, MS.

Schools were closed. Air Mail was at a standstill, but the regular mail was operating. Trains were running 45 minutes behind schedule. Streetcars and buses were stranded, but the Birmingham Electric Company promised to have them operating by afternoon.

Temperatures were dropping like a rock as an Arctic airmass plunged south. The morning low at Dallas was 0F. It was 25F in Brownsville, Texas. The mercury fell to 14F Wednesday morning. Mr. Horton’s forecast called for fair and colder conditions with a low between 5-10F that night.

More snow fell on Thursday the 25th. The temperature fell to 12F that morning at the Fountain Heights weather office. It was 4F at the Airport. School children in Birmingham cheered as the superintendent announced that classes were canceled until Monday. Gorgeous pictures of Birmingham gleaming under a thick blanket of snow adorned the afternoon News.

There was no let up in the wintry conditions as the core of the Arctic air settled into the South. On the morning of Friday the 26th, Mr. Horton measured a morning low of 1F. A News photo showed the giant billboard thermometer at Avenue F and 24th Street stuck at 0F. It was -5 at the Airport. Nashville measured a low of -13F. The official forecast called for an overnight low near zero.

On Saturday the 27th, skaters took to the Black Warrior River west of Birmingham as the ice grew to a thickness of six inches near the banks! Nearly every building and house in the city had icicles as long as seven feet hanging from their eaves. The falling icicles were posing a serious peril. Suffering was widespread. There was a serious coal shortage. 361 people had died nationally, including three Alabamians. The overnight low at the Birmingham weather office was 1F. But at the Airport, the mercury bottomed out at an amazing -10F! It was the coldest reading ever in Birmingham. But the Airport was not the official weather station at the time. The Magic City’s coldest reading of -10F still stood, observed on February 13, 1899.

– Bill Murray

bill.murray@theweathercompany.com
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Category: Pre-November 2010 Posts