A violent severe weather outbreak struck the

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

on April 4–5, 1977. A total of 21

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

es touched down with the strongest ones occurring in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

, and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. The strongest was a catastrophic F5 tornado that struck the Northern Birmingham, Alabama suburbs during the afternoon of Monday, April 4, 1977. In the end, the entire outbreak directly caused 24 deaths and over 200 injuries. The storm system also caused the crash of

Southern Airways Flight 242 Southern Airways Flight 242 was a flight from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to Atlanta, Georgia, with a stop in Huntsville, Alabama. On April 4, 1977, it executed a forced landing on Georgia State Route 381 in New Hope, Paulding County, Georgia, Unit ...

, which killed 72 and injured 22.

Confirmed tornadoes

April 4 event

April 5 event

Birmingham–Smithfield, Alabama

Beginning just a few miles north of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

near Tarrant, the tornado proceeded north through northern Jefferson County producing F5 damage in Smithfield, northeast of Ensley. The tornado, which was at times wide, was blamed for 22 deaths, more than 125 injuries, and $25 million in damage. Hundreds of homes were completely destroyed, many of which were completely swept away, despite being well-built. Some of the homes built into hillsides even had their cinder-block basement walls swept away. Many trees in the area were snapped and debarked and vehicles were thrown and destroyed. Two dump-trucks were thrown through the air near

I-65 Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates ending in 5, it is a major crosscountry, north–south route, connecting between the Great Lakes and the Gulf ...

as well. Daniel Payne College suffered extensive damage, forcing it to permanently close due to the extent of the destruction.Other Birmingham Area Tornadoes

Ted Fujita was a Japanese-American meteorologist whose research primarily focused on severe weather. His research at the University of Chicago on severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and typhoons revolutionized the knowledge of each. Although ...

followed the tornado and

supercell A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms ( ...

from an airplane and while surveying damage; he rated the Smithfield tornado F5.NWS Birmingham, Alabama – Smithfield Tornado 4/4/1977
/ref>

Other tornadoes

In addition to this tornado, several other tornadoes were reported from the same system in the Midwest,

and

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

. One tornado in

Floyd County, Georgia Floyd County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 98,584. The county seat is Rome. Floyd County comprises the Rome, GA metropolitan statistical are ...

, killed one person, and another fatality was reported east of Birmingham in St. Clair County. The severe weather that day also contributed to the crash of

, which crashed near New Hope, Georgia, killing over 70 people. The F5 tornado touched down near the end of the path of three other violent tornadoes that struck the Birmingham region in

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are kille ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

. The 1956 tornado was an F4 that struck McDonald Chapel, before continuing through Edgewater, northern Birmingham, Fultondale, and Tarrant before dissipating, killing 25. In 1998, an F5 tornado touched town in a rural area near Tuscaloosa before tearing through Rock Creek, Sylvan Springs, Edgewater and McDonald Chapel, killing 32. The 2011 tornado was an EF4 that devastated Tuscaloosa before impacting

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

, Pleasant Grove, McDonald Chapel, northern Birmingham, and Fultondale before lifting, killing 64 people.

Non-tornadic impacts

The storms that bought the tornadoes on April 4 also bought a large squall line across

. This proved disastrous when

attempted to fly around the storm and instead flew straight into it. Massive amounts of very large hail and very heavy rain battered the plane and destroyed its engines. With no way to keep flying, it attempted a landing on a stretch of highway in New Hope, Georgia. The road section used for the forced landing, formerly called Georgia State Route 92 Spur, is now called

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

– Acworth Highway (formerly

Georgia State Route 381 Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

). The

DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. Afte ...

actually landed successfully, but then crashed into a gas station, grocery store, and other structures and vehicles during the rollout. The plane was destroyed, killing the flight crew, 60 passengers, and nine people on the ground.

References

External links

Storm Data

April 4, 1977 tornado maps
- Tornado History Project
The Birmingham F5 tornado
- Tornado History Project
NWS Birmingham summary of the April 4, 1977 Smithfield tornado
{{Alabama tornado events F5 tornadoes Tornadoes of 1977 Tornadoes in Mississippi Tornadoes in Missouri Tornadoes in Alabama Tornadoes in Kentucky Tornadoes in Georgia (U.S. state) Tornadoes in Indiana Tornadoes in North Carolina Tornadoes in Virginia Tornadoes in Pennsylvania 1977 natural disasters in the United States April 1977 events in the United States 1977 in Alabama