Alabama Landscapes
Weather and Climate
Weather and Climate
Weather is the condition of the atmosphere in a given location at a given time. Climate is the long-term average of weather. They will be discussed together in this section.
In common with other states in the southeast, Alabama enjoys a humid
subtropical climate, with hot summers and year-round rain.
The following extremes have occurred in the 20th century:
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the highest recorded temperature in the state was 112oF and the coldest was -27oF.
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In 1975 the state received 76 inches of rain, but in 1954 the state received only 33 inches.
July is the warmest month and January the coldest (unlike states
further into the interior of the continent, the lag time between maximum
incoming solar radiation and the highest temperatures is not as great.)
Rainfall is at a minimum in the fall, particularly in September and
October. Birmingham, for example, received no recorded rain for from
August 23 to October 4, 1995, a period of 43 days. Many of the
"droughts" in Alabama occur in the fall.
Variations within the State
There are differences within the state, as shown by the climographs (plots of average monthly temperature and rainfall for a location) for some cities (Figure CL1). Fairhope, on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay, is significantly warmer and wetter than Tuscaloosa, which is located in the interior of the state. Its temperatures are about 4-5oF higher in the late fall, winter and spring, and its rainfall totals about 5" more. The rainfall difference is due to the wet summer months along the coast.
Figure CL1. Climate data for Fairhope (burgundy) and Tuscaloosa (blue). Bars: mean monthly rainfall, triangles: mean monthly temperatures. (www.WorldClimate.com)