Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Fairhope, AL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Fairhope 2 NE, AL, 2 miles north of Fairhope at 23 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 91°F and low of 70°F; January is the coolest, at 62°F and 37°F. July is the wettest at 9.0 inches of precipitation on average and October the driest at 4.4 inches; the year adds up to 69.5 inches over 82 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 56% of the year's precipitation (38.6 of 69.5 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 75 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (30); a normal September there has highs of 88°F and 6.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 81 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 25 nights a year. That 69.5 inches is more than at 105 of the 107 Alabama stations used on this site (98%). Silverhill, 8 miles east, has its own station (Robertsdale, AL): 69.0 inches a year, 0.5 less than here, and a July average high of 90°F against 91°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Coast Guard Sector Mobile, AL, 14 miles northwest, averaged 87°F in August and 56°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from June to September. Sea level at the Mobile State Docks tide gauge, 16 miles from Fairhope, has risen 1.82 ± 0.24 inches per decade from 1980 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 18.2 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 113 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 117 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Fairhope: 66 thunderstorm wind reports, 36 flash floods, 8 heavy rain events, 5 lightning strikes and 2 floods. They killed 0 people and injured 2, and the NWS estimated $1.9 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on July 21, 2000. April has had the most flash floods, 8 of 36. Of the 321 Alabama cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 261 have had fewer than Fairhope.

Flood insurance policyholders in Fairhope's ZIP code 36532 have filed 1,297 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $34.7 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Katrina in 2005: 337 claims (26% of all) and $17.4 million, then Hurricane Ivan in 2004 with 188 and Hurricane Georges in 1998 with 177. 86% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 118 Alabama cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 113 have fewer than Fairhope.