The 1925 Heat Wave

The headline on the Thursday, September 3, 1925 edition of the self proclaimed “South’s Greatest  Newspaper,” The Birmingham News, moaned the loss of the U.S. naval dirigible Shenandoah, which broke apart after flying into a line of thunderstorms over Ohio.  It had been traveling westward from Lakehurst, NJ when it encountered the squall line.  Four Alabamians were on the ship. 

Also on the front page was the heat in Birmingham.  It had started to heat up in Birmingham late in August, when temperatures would normally be expected to begin dropping.  But the heat really started in earnest in early September.  On the 3rd, the high reached at Birmingham reached 101.5F at 1:15 p.m. in the afternoon at the Birmingham weather office in Fountain Heights. 

Weatherman E.C. Horton called for fair and warm weather to continue.  There would be six more straight days of 100F+ degree heat followed by five more in late September.  Add this to the three 100F+ temperatures in late August, and there were 15 100F+ days in 1925, the most ever in Birmingham weather history.

Number of annual 100F+ days in Birmingham

1925 14

1980 14

1930 14

1995 13

1954 13

1952 11

2007 10

1990 10

2000 08

1991 08

Category: Met 101/Weather History