Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Saraland, AL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Mobile, AL, 14 miles southwest of Saraland 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 (27); 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%). Satsuma, 3 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 Mobile State Docks, AL, 9 miles south, averaged 88°F in August and 53°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, 9 miles from Saraland, 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 121 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Saraland: 77 thunderstorm wind reports, 36 flash floods, 6 lightning strikes and 2 floods. They killed 1 person and injured 9, and the NWS estimated $11.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 101 mph, on January 26, 1996. August 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 Saraland.

Flood insurance policyholders in Saraland's ZIP code 36571 have filed 462 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $4.1 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1998: 94 claims (20% of all) and $656,000, then Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with 58 and Hurricane Georges in 1998 with 41. 52% 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, 105 have fewer than Saraland.