The 1956 McDonald Chapel, Alabama tornado was a deadly tornado that took place during the afternoon of April 15, 1956, across the Greater Birmingham area in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. Retroactively rated an F4 on the Fujita scale, which was not invented until 1971, the 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.