REGIONS 67 COUNTIES · 8 REGIONAL SITES · NWS OFFICIAL Regions Severe Climate About Almanac Garden
ALA 65
FORECAST ALABAMA
Weather & Climate · The Yellowhammer State

Regions of Alabama

Alabama is too big for one forecast. The state splits into 8 regions, each with its own site — the same maps, the same live radar and the same climate record, scoped to the counties that actually share a sky. Every city in a region gets its own page underneath it.

The 8 Regions

Guide · Pick a region
Birmingham
The Magic City · I-65 · Dixie Alley
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This is the heart of Dixie Alley, and it is a harder problem than the plains. The tornadoes here come at night, they come in the trees where nobody sees them, they come in April and again in November, and the ridges and hollows south of the city hide them until they are close. April 27, 2011 crossed these counties.
7
Counties
57
City Pages
I-65
Main Street
Greater Birmingham
birmingham.forecastalabama.com
Huntsville
Rocket City · I-565 · The Tennessee Valley
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The valley funnels weather the way the river does. Storms coming out of Mississippi track the Tennessee straight into these counties, the Sand Mountain and Cumberland Plateau edges wring out extra rain, and the same nighttime tornadoes that make Alabama the deadliest state for them run this corridor every spring and again in November.
6
Counties
48
City Pages
I-565
Main Street
Tennessee Valley
huntsville.forecastalabama.com
Florence
The Shoals · US-72 · The Tennessee River
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The Shoals sits on the Tennessee River where north Alabama flattens out, and that open ground is the problem: the springtime supercells come out of Mississippi with nothing to break them up, and April 27, 2011 tracked across these counties among the worst of that day. Winter here is the ice line more often than the snow line.
5
Counties
36
City Pages
US-72
Main Street
The Shoals
florence.forecastalabama.com
Tuscaloosa
The Druid City · I-20/59 · West Alabama
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Tuscaloosa knows exactly what this is. The April 27, 2011 tornado came through the city on the ground for 80 miles, and the same I-20/59 corridor steers the outbreaks every spring and again in late autumn. West of here the Black Belt prairie is flat, dark and poorly drained, and it floods as fast as it dries.
10
Counties
61
City Pages
I-20/59
Main Street
West Alabama
tuscaloosa.forecastalabama.com
Auburn
The Plains · I-85 · East Alabama
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East Alabama takes the storms after they have crossed the whole state, and they arrive here at night. The Beauregard tornado killed 23 people in Lee County in March 2019, twenty minutes from campus. The Talladega and Cheaha ridges to the north are the last of the Appalachians, and they hold snow and ice that Auburn never sees.
12
Counties
86
City Pages
I-85
Main Street
East Alabama
auburn.forecastalabama.com
Montgomery
The Capital · I-65 · The River Region
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The River Region sits where the Piedmont gives out and the Black Belt prairie begins, and the soil change shows up in the weather — the flat, dark, poorly drained ground floods fast, and the same nighttime supercells that cross Birmingham arrive here with nothing to slow them down. Hurricane remnants still reach this far inland with a full day of rain.
5
Counties
28
City Pages
I-65
Main Street
River Region
montgomery.forecastalabama.com
Dothan
The Circle City · US-231 · The Wiregrass
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The Wiregrass is the corner of Alabama that watches the Gulf. Hurricanes that come ashore at Panama City are still hurricanes when they reach Dothan — Michael snapped pines and pivots all the way up here in 2018 — and between them the peanut country runs on afternoon thunderstorms and the occasional spring tornado coming out of the southwest.
6
Counties
46
City Pages
US-231
Main Street
Wiregrass
dothan.forecastalabama.com
Mobile
The Port City · I-10 · The Gulf Coast
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Mobile is the rainiest city in the United States, and that is before the tropics get involved. The bay funnels surge, the barrier islands take the landfall first, and Frederic, Ivan, Katrina and Sally are all inside living memory here. Between storms it is sea-breeze thunderstorms almost every summer afternoon.
3
Counties
45
City Pages
I-10
Main Street
Gulf Coast
mobile.forecastalabama.com

Every County

Services · 67 counties

Which region a county belongs to, and where its forecast lives.

Birmingham
7 counties
Jefferson · Shelby · St. Clair · Blount · Bibb · Chilton · Walker
Huntsville
6 counties
Madison · Limestone · Morgan · Lawrence · Jackson · Marshall
The Shoals
5 counties
Lauderdale · Colbert · Franklin · Marion · Winston
Tuscaloosa
10 counties
Tuscaloosa · Pickens · Greene · Hale · Sumter · Marengo · Choctaw · Fayette · Lamar · Perry
Auburn
12 counties
Lee · Russell · Chambers · Tallapoosa · Macon · Bullock · Randolph · Clay · Coosa · Talladega · Cleburne · Calhoun
Montgomery
5 counties
Montgomery · Autauga · Elmore · Lowndes · Dallas
Dothan
6 counties
Houston · Henry · Geneva · Coffee · Dale · Barbour
Mobile
3 counties
Mobile · Baldwin · Washington