Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Summerdale, AL

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Robertsdale, AL, 6 miles north of Summerdale 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%). Fairhope, 10 miles west, has its own station (Fairhope 2 NE, AL): 69.5 inches a year, 0.5 more than here, and a July average high of 91°F against 90°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Coast Guard Sector Mobile, AL, 24 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, 25 miles from Summerdale, 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 120 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Summerdale: 64 thunderstorm wind reports, 40 flash floods, 6 heavy rain events, 6 lightning strikes and 4 floods. They killed 0 people and injured 8, and the NWS estimated $1.5 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 120 mph, on March 27, 2009. Of the 321 Alabama cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 272 have had fewer than Summerdale.

Flood insurance policyholders in Summerdale's ZIP code 36580 have filed 277 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $9.0 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Mid-spring storms in 2014: 80 claims (29% of all) and $5.1 million, then Hurricane Sally in 2020 with 47 and Hurricane Danny in 1997 with 29. 78% 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, 102 have fewer than Summerdale.