If you are thinking about moving to or vacationing in Baldwin County you may be asking yourself, what is the weather like there?
Put simply, most days are sunny. Perfect for beach, and outdoor activities.
It rains a lot when it rains.
We have a long summer and a short mild winter.
Six Seasons
Bill Finch, the Mobile newspaper gardening column expert teaches 6 seasons: Winter, Spring, Fall and 3 Summers.
Winter is from December 15 thru February 15 –
it is influenced by blasts of artic air diving South. It almost never snows.
With no ice storms like mid-LA, MS, AL & GA
Spring is from February 15 thru April 15 –
It is influenced by Spring thunderstorms originating in North Central Texas up through OK, MO, KS that sweep eastward.
Our Spring flowers begin blooming in February and by April we’re enjoying summer bedding plant blooms.
Our first summer is called American Summer and runs from April 15 thru June 15
When we experience pleasant days & nights affected by continuing Spring thunderstorm patterns.
We have Warm days and cooler nights.
Our second summer is called Tropical Summer and runs from June 15 thru August 15 –
We experience waves of moisture off the Gulf.
It’s hot and muggy.
And there is the threat of rain every afternoon.
The third summer is called Hurricane Summer and runs from August 15 thru October 15 –
During this time Caribbean & Gulf tropical storms & hurricanes control our weather.
Its’s still Hot but there’s not as much rain.
Our Fall is from October 15 thru December 15 –
And our weather is influenced by ebb & flow of Gulf & Artic fronts. Most of the time we have mild days and cooler nights.
I took Bill’s gardening class in 2015 and have found his timing to be incredibly accurate with the seasons shifting within a week of his prediction.
Hurricanes
You can’t talk about our weather without talking about hurricanes. We experience hurricanes.
Hurricanes are serious business. When I lived in Gulf Shores on West Beach on the water, I evacuated for every category 1 or above storm.
I’ve seen cars buried up to their windows from the sand left by the storm surge from a category 1 storm.
And I’ve seen homes completely disappear from a category 4 storm. Sucked up into the air like Dorothy in Wizard of Oz.
Hurricane parties to “ride out the storm” are insanely stupid if you live on the beach.
Since I moved inland to Fairhope, which has a higher elevation, I haven’t evacuated.
Winds do damage. But it’s the water that kills.
Each and every hurricane is different and causes different levels of damage.
1979’s category 4 hurricane Frederic hit Orange Beach and Gulf Shores extremely hard wiping out many of the wooden structures. Ultimately paving the way for the “modern” development of both towns.
Ivan in 2004 and Katrina in 2005 were category 4s and were devastating to the beaches but moved quickly and inland damage was moderate. Improved building codes developed following Florida’s 1992 hurricane Andrew had improved the survivability of many structures.
2020’s Sally was a category 1 that moved slowly, blew longer and rained a ton. The beaches were hit hard but the real damage was inland all over the county where an extremely large number of trees were downed.
Some say there is a pattern of a major storm every 15 years or so. 1979’s Frederic. Ivan in 2004 and Sally in 2020.
I can’t say if it’s a pattern or coincidence. But I can tell you this much.
There will be another major storm again one of these years. And lots of little storms in between.
Meanwhile cross your fingers and hope there won’t be another big one until 2035.
Tornados
I get asked about tornados a lot.
We do get tornados and water spouts.
But not anywhere as many or as intense as they get farther north in Alabama, MS, GA, LA.
Most of our tornados are very narrow and stay on the ground for a very short period of time.
Most of the waterspouts never come ashore.
Frankly, we probably don’t respect their power enough.
Snow and Ice
If you’re tired of shoveling snow, I’ve got good news for you.
Since 1997, I’ve seen 1/8” of snow on the ground at the beach once for about 2 hours.
I’ve seen ¼” of snow in Fairhope for 4 hours.
Snow is so unusual here that when it rarely snows 50 miles north of Mobile, people put their kids in the car and drive to see the snow.
TV weather teams scatter reporters across the area to film snow falling.
Now, you’ve seen the weathermen on tv during a hurricane leaning into the wind. The image here is the weatherman holding out their hand to catch a snow flake.
Probably sounds silly to those of you who shovel snow. But for us, its NEWS!
There is a band across the South – Dallas, Shreveport, Jackson, Birmingham and Atlanta where the true winter nightmare is not snow but ice.
Ice storms and pine trees don’t mix well.
And Ice storms turn driving into treacherous adventures and falling tree limbs knock out power.
Our neighbor, the big bathtub known as the Gulf of Mexico must absorb a lot of the cold because we just don’t experience ice storms here in Baldwin.
Temperature
I’ve already told you it’s hot here in Baldwin. But it’s not the same temperature every where
Your temperature in Baldwin County will be affected by how close you are to the Gulf. Mobile is 5 degrees hotter than the beaches in the summer and 5 degrees cooler in the winter. And the Northern end of our TV viewing area which is further from the Gulf is another 3 or 4 degrees of difference.
Our summer temperatures reach mid to upper 90s. Winter temperatures occasionally drop to upper 20s at night.
But a typical winter doesn’t have very many nights below freezing.
That said, the record temperatures are above 100 and below 5.
So, who knows what tomorrow will be like? Not me.
This chart will help you see the temperature ranges we experience.
<<temperature chart>>
Rain
Remember, I said it rains a lot when it rains.
Mobile, AL is wettest city in America. Pensacola, FL is the 2nd wettest. Baldwin county is located right between the two.
Mobile’s average rainfall is 69”. In the last 20+ years that I’ve lived here, many years recorded in the 80”s and none were below 70”.
To get that much accumulated rain, it must rain a lot when it rains.
1-2” rains seem normal to us. Less than that doesn’t count as a rainy day.
And, 4-6” rains are not counted as freak storms.
We have drier spells in April/May and October/November when you might have to water plants if you garden.
The most rain I’ve seen in 20+ years I’ve lived here was 17” during one night in April 2014. And, it did rain 36” over a couple of days with Hurricane Danny in 1997 which caused flooding in the Fish River area.
There is sometime road/street flooding in Baldwin in low spots. Very little neighborhood flooding is reported.
But this is not so in Mobile. They have neighborhoods that flood.
Baldwin has a lot of sandy soil and seems to have good drainage considering how flat we are.
And, when it’s not raining it’s humid. This chart will help you see the humidity ranges we experience.
If you enjoy being at the beach, on the water or outdoors, you’ll really like our weather.
And, if you don’t like heat, humidity, & rain, you can always enjoy the view of a green & lush landscape from inside your air-conditioned home and car.
I moved to paradise 20+ years ago and love the weather.