Memories of April 3, 1974

 "This was a post that I wrote in 2010 on the 34th anniversary of this super outbreak. I will have more thoughts later about this event and about some of the other significant severe weather events that have impacted Alabama in April."

        When I was 4 years old, my fascination with weather began. One event started me on a journey learn as much as I could about weather. That event was the tornado outbreak that came to be known as the super outbreak. It occurred on April 3rd and 4th, 1974.

        I was living in Jasper, Alabama at the time. I don’t remember much about the day itself, but I have read that many people said that it felt unusual for April. It was dark when a large tornado struck downtown Jasper that night. I remember that the TV was on and suddenly the power went off. I was in the den of the apartment where My mother and I lived. She called out to t=me from another room saying “Eric, where are you?” I replied that I was in the dark. The manager of the complex came from across the street to get my mother and I to come over to his apartment. It was raining very hard and hail was falling. The wind was loud and roaring. As we were walking across to the other apartment my Aunt and Uncle came into town to get me and my mother to take us to a storm shelter (We called them storm pits) that was near their house.

        Those events caused me to be very afraid of storms as a child. It also didn’t help that my Aunt and grandmother headed for that “storm pit” every time there were clouds nearby. As I grew older I began to pay more attention to what was said about storms on TV and read books on the weather. I still have a book my Grandmother bought me in 1980 called “The Weather Almanac”. It described how storms form and how the warning process worked. With this understanding, I was no longer afraid but knew that severe weather is something to be respected. Because of TV meteorologists like John Coleman, Mike Royer and James Spann, I pursued a degree in radio in television but have never had the opportunity to formally study the science of meteorology. Even though I was not able to study the science, the Internet has allowed me to learn more and pursue the study of weather as a hobby.

        The night of April 3rd, 1974 shaped part of my life even if I was not directly impacted by the tornadoes. Do you have any memories of the events of that night? What kind of events have impacted the way you look at life and did you learn from them?