Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Mobile, AL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Mobile, AL, 5 miles west of Mobile at 208 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 91°F and low of 73°F; January is the coolest, at 62°F and 41°F. July is the wettest at 7.7 inches of precipitation on average and October the driest at 4.0 inches; the year adds up to 67.3 inches over 80 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 52% of the year's precipitation (35.1 of 67.3 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 68 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (28); a normal September there has highs of 88°F and 5.3 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 77 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 21 nights a year. That 67.3 inches is more than at 102 of the 107 Alabama stations used on this site (95%). Whistler, 7 miles northeast, has its own station (Mobile Dwtn Airport, AL): 60.6 inches a year, 6.7 less than here, and a July average high of 92°F against 91°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Coast Guard Sector Mobile, AL, 6 miles east, 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, 8 miles from Mobile, 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 287 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Mobile: 173 thunderstorm wind reports, 88 flash floods, 15 lightning strikes, 6 heavy rain events and 5 floods. They killed 1 person and injured 12, and the NWS estimated $6.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 86 mph, on July 16, 2000. August has had the most flash floods, 18 of 88. Of the 321 Alabama cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 311 have had fewer than Mobile.

Flood insurance policyholders in Mobile's 13 ZIP codes have filed 6,143 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $147.2 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1981: 1,541 claims (25% of all) and $20.6 million, then Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with 1,263 and Hurricane Frederic in 1979 with 666. The year with the most claims was 2005, with 1,342. 79% 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, 116 have fewer than Mobile.