Weatherwise, it had been a quiet year nationally. A hurricane and a tropical storm struck Texas while a hurricane and a tropical storm hit Florida. It was a short hurricane season, lasting only 37 days.
Much of the country was wetter and colder than normal. Precipitation is Alabama was only about 87 percent of normal however.
A total of 123 tornadoes were reported, which was below the long term average of the day, which was 145 at the time. A total of 48 tornado fatalities were recorded in the United States. There were no tornadoes reported in Alabama in the year (yeah, right.) A late night tornado on October 26th in Hamburg, Arkansas killed fifteen.
On this morning that year, a cold continental airmass covered much of the eastern United States. The responsible cold front had pushed through Florida and was lying over the Florida Straits. It was clear and chilly in Alabama. Temperatures were in the 20s across the northern half of the state. The morning low in Birmingham was 29F. It had been in the 70s before the cold front. Nationally, a cold front was moving through the northern Plains with wind and snow. It was foggy in the Northeast, where Boston was socked in.
World political news dominated the newspapers that morning. Headlines told of a direct letter from President Roosevelt’s Emperor Hirohito about Japanese military actions in the Pacific. A heavily escorted Japanese convoy was steaming toward Thailand. A prophetic article said that the Japanese were about to pull out of diplomatic talks with the U.S. to end the Pacific Crisis. Meanwhile, the Russians were aligning with the British and Americans against Japan.
Temperatures as cold as -17F were allowing for massive counterattacks against the ill-prepared Nazis on the Moscow front. Secretary of Navy Frank Knox was warning FDR that the military had to be ready on both the Atlantic and Pacific fronts. His prophesy would be proven true when a news flash came at 12:30 p.m. CST that Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was under attack.
America was officially at war.
