Chief Meteorologist TG Shuck Remembers 1974 Tornado Super Outbreak As Young Boy 50 Years Later

Says It Was The Event That Made Him Want To Become A Meteorologist

Lexington, KY. (WTVQ) —

In the news, one of the big things we often say is that everyone has a story. The same goes for people who even work in the news industry.

The year was 1974. Gas was just 53-cents a gallon. The two big hit movies were “Blazing Saddles” and “The Godfather: Part II.” There was “The Rumble in the Jungle” — the fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, where the next day, Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s all time home run record. The hit songs were “Waterloo” by ABBA, “Killer Queen” by Queen, and fashion was king! But months before the United States would see it’s first President, Richard Nixon, resign in August 1974, a weather event shook the nation. ABC36 Chief Meteorologist TG Shuck was just 5-years old, but remembers it like it was yesterday.

“I remember my sister and I going to church in downtown Lexington. It was really windy. The one thing I remember is my grandmother came to pick us up and take us. It was still daylight, and looking back to the west, because storms generally come west to east, still to this day in all the years of doing weather and seeing different things, I’ve never seen the sky as dark as it was that day… still to this day,” he says.

On April 3rd and 4th, 1974, thirty F-4 and F-5 tornadoes touched down in a 24-hour period, stretching from Ohio to Alabama. Today, it’s known as the 1974 Super Tornado Outbreak, the second largest of it’s kind.

TG says, “We’ve had so many of these types of events over the last 15 to 20 years that most of the younger generations don’t know anything about it.”

More than 6,000 people were injured. More than 300 lives were lost. More than 250 homes and buildings destroyed. TG says, “Obviously it was a much different time. Technology, forecasting wise, you didn’t have as much advance warnings. The radar system that we have now wasn’t in place. Then, they were using old Air Force radars from the 1950s. The reports were sporadic. Getting the warnings out, it was almost like word of mouth. You got it over the radio but TV, people didn’t have a lot of lead time. In many cases, they didn’t even know it was coming. Or, they could hear it coming and they didn’t have any time to react.”

TG says for most meteorologists like himself, it’s weather events like the 1974 Super Tornado Outbreak that brought him into the atmospheric science world. He says, “When I was that age, of course you’re naturally scared about what you’re seeing, but it also intrigued me enough to where it was something I wanted to pursue as a career.”

While he was a scared 5-year old little boy during that tornado outbreak back in 1974, it was another weather event right after that TG also learned to love. He says, “I remember waking up, and it was me, my sister, my mom and my dad, and I remember seeing the light through the patio door and feeling relief that we had made it through the night. Because as a kid, it was so scary because these things were all around us. You’re hearing all this as a young child and you’re scared to death, but seeing that light that morning knowing it was over, it was a complete relief.”