Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Orange Beach, AL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Pensacola Forest Sherman NAS, FL, 15 miles east of Orange Beach at 28 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 89°F and low of 74°F; January is the coolest, at 61°F and 42°F. September is the wettest at 6.8 inches of precipitation on average and May the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 57.8 inches over 71 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 58% of the year's precipitation (33.3 of 57.8 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 78 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (32); a normal September there has highs of 86°F and 6.8 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 56 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 14 nights a year. That 57.8 inches is more than at 58 of the 107 Alabama stations used on this site (54%). Gulf Shores, 10 miles west, has its own station (Dauphin Is #2, AL): 61.1 inches a year, 3.3 more than here, and a July average high of 88°F against 89°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Pensacola, FL, 22 miles east, averaged 88°F in August and 58°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from June to September. Sea level at the Pensacola tide gauge, 22 miles from Orange Beach, has risen 1.07 ± 0.05 inches per decade from 1923 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 10.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 60 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 76 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Orange Beach: 36 thunderstorm wind reports, 23 flash floods, 8 heavy rain events, 7 lightning strikes and 2 floods. They killed 3 people and injured 12, and the NWS estimated $151.6 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on January 2, 2017. Of the 321 Alabama cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 223 have had fewer than Orange Beach.

Flood insurance policyholders in Orange Beach's ZIP code 36561 have filed 4,779 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $253.9 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Ivan in 2004: 1,684 claims (35% of all) and $173.7 million, then Hurricane Sally in 2020 with 1,363 and Hurricane Georges in 1998 with 533. 96% 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, 115 have fewer than Orange Beach.