Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Foley, AL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Robertsdale, AL, 12 miles north of Foley at 161 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 90°F and low of 72°F; January is the coolest, at 61°F and 39°F. July is the wettest at 9.1 inches of precipitation on average and October the driest at 4.2 inches; the year adds up to 69.0 inches over 77 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 56% of the year's precipitation (38.5 of 69.0 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 75 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (29); a normal September there has highs of 87°F and 6.4 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 69 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 28 nights a year. That 69.0 inches is more than at 103 of the 107 Alabama stations used on this site (96%). Elberta, 8 miles east, has its own station (Pensacola Forest Sherman NAS, FL): 57.8 inches a year, 11.2 less than here, and a July average high of 89°F against 90°F.

Sea level at the Dauphin Island tide gauge, 25 miles from Foley, has risen 1.72 ± 0.10 inches per decade from 1966 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 17.2 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 109 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 107 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Foley: 51 thunderstorm wind reports, 36 flash floods, 11 lightning strikes, 7 heavy rain events and 2 floods. They killed 2 people and injured 16, and the NWS estimated $1.5 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on April 17, 2022. June has had the most flash floods, 7 of 36. Of the 321 Alabama cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 261 have had fewer than Foley.

Flood insurance policyholders in Foley's ZIP code 36535 have filed 714 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $30.5 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Sally in 2020: 220 claims (31% of all) and $15.3 million, then Mid-spring storms in 2014 with 120 and Hurricane Ivan in 2004 with 116. 92% 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, 111 have fewer than Foley.