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McDonald Chapel/Sayreton, Alabama
F4 tornado
Max. rating1	F4 tornado
Fatalities	25 fatalities, 200 injuries
	1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale

1956 McDonald Chapel tornado
F4 tornado
Max. rating1	F4 tornado
Fatalities	25 fatalities, 200 injuries
Areas affected	Jefferson County, Alabama
	1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale

The 1956 McDonald Chapel tornado was a deadly weather event that took place during the afternoon of Sunday April 15, 1956, across the Greater Birmingham area in Jefferson County, Alabama, with damage most severe in McDonald Chapel. The F4 tornado killed 25 people and injured 200 others. While only two known tornadoes touched down across the Southeastern United States (the other occurred in northern Georgia) on that day, the Birmingham tornado produced major devastation across areas west and north of downtown Birmingham.

Meteorological synopsis

At 5:15 a.m. CST on April 15, the U.S. Weather Bureau office in Birmingham, Alabama, issued a bulletin that warned of the possibility that a "tornado or two" would touch down in an area covering western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and northern Alabama—namely, Lauderdale, Limestone, Lawrence, Colbert, and Morgan Counties, plus parts of Marion, Winston, Cullman, and Madison Counties.^[1] An update at noon local time highlighted the prospects of severe thunderstorms over west-central Alabama between 1:00–7:00 p.m. CST. Hail and gusts to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) were expected to remain the primary hazards.^[1]^[2]

Confirmed tornadoes

Confirmed tornadoes by Fujita rating
FU	F0	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5	Total
0	0	3	1	0	1	0	5

April 14 event

List of confirmed tornadoes – April 14, 1956
F#	Location	County	State	Time (UTC)	Path length	Damage
F1	Morenci	Lenawee	MI	0000	0.1 miles (0.16 km)	A barn was shifted off its foundation.^[3]
F1	SE of Minneola	Clark	KS	0100	0.1 miles (0.16 km)	A barn and a cattle shed were destroyed.^[3]
F1	Midlothian	Ellis	TX	0200	1 mile (1.6 km)	Residences and barns were unroofed, and some small buildings were destroyed. The tornado path was 200 yards (183 m) wide.^[3]
Sources: NCDC Storm Events Database, Grazulis 1993

April 15 event

List of confirmed tornadoes – April 15, 1956
F#	Location	County	State	Time (UTC)	Path length	Damage
F4	Pleasant Grove to NW of Trussville	Jefferson	AL	2100	21.3 miles (34.3 km)	25 deaths – See section on this tornado – At least 200 people were injured. 48 people were still listed as hospitalized on April 17, two days after the tornado.^[1] Total damage reached $1.5 million.^[4]^{[nb 1]}
F2	SW of Dallas to Cumming	Paulding, Cobb, Cherokee, Forsyth	GA	2330	46.8 miles (75.3 km)	About 25 homes were damaged, and others were unroofed near Dallas and Cumming.^[4] 29 broiler houses were damaged or destroyed as well. F1 damage occurred south of Acworth and north of Woodstock.^[4] Widespread downburst activity was reported along the path.
Sources: NCDC Storm Events Database, Grazulis 1993

McDonald Chapel/Sayreton, Alabama

The tornado started shortly before 3:00 PM CDT in Pleasant Grove, where a tornado "roar" was heard. Damage between Pleasant Grove and McDonald Chapel indicated that trees were felled in a single direction, so the damage was not listed as tornadic at first, but was considered part of the tornado in posthumous analysis.^[1] Next, the tornado struck McDonald Chapel, with a path 200 yards (183 m) wide, devastating the community.^[4] Almost total destruction occurred in a swath 150–200 yards (137–183 m) wide. As it passed through McDonald Chapel, eyewitnesses described the tornado funnel as appearing filled with fire and smoke.^[1] Many homes in McDonald Chapel were leveled, several of which were swept completely away. The most intense damage appeared to be F5 in intensity, but an F4 rating was rewarded because the homes were very poorly constructed.^[4] One of the homes reportedly had almost all of its brick foundation swept away,^[1] and a few larger homes were also leveled.^[4] The tornado continued across parts of Edgewater, Pratt City, Fultondale, Village Creek, and Tarrant before lifting northwest of Trussville, near the Jefferson-St. Clair County line.^[1] The tornado passed just one to two miles north of downtown Birmingham as well as the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. About 400 homes across northern Jefferson County were either damaged or destroyed.^[4] Most of the 25 deaths occurred at McDonald Chapel.^[1]

The tornado event was similar to other deadly tornadoes on April 4, 1977, April 8, 1998, and April 27, 2011. The 1977 and 1998 tornadoes were rated F5, and killed 22 and 32 people, respectively, across most of the same areas that were hit in 1956. The 2011 event was rated high-end EF4, and killed 20 people in the area along with 44 others in Tuscaloosa earlier along its path. With 25 fatalities, the McDonald Chapel F4 was the deadliest tornado of 1956, surpassing the Grand Rapids F5 that killed 18 people on April 3.

Notes

^ All damage totals are in 1956 United States dollars unless otherwise noted.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h "McDonald Chapel F-4 Tornado - Jefferson County April 15, 1956". Birmingham, Alabama: National Weather Service. 13 February 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
^ "North America Tornado Cases 1950 to 1959". bangladeshtornadoes.org. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Storm Data and Unusual Weather Phenomena". Climatological Data National Summary. 7 (4). Asheville, North Carolina: United States Department of Commerce: 120–122. 1956.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Grazulis 1993, p. 996

Bibliography

Grazulis, Thomas (1993), Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events, St. Johnsbury, Vermont: Environmental Films, ISBN 1-879362-03-1
Grazulis, Thomas (2003), The Tornado: Nature's Ultimate Windstorm, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 978-0-8061-3538-0