Fall Weather in Orange Beach Alabama, United StatesDaily high temperatures decrease by 21°F, from 88°F to 68°F, rarely falling below 57°F or exceeding 93°F. Daily low temperatures decrease by 24°F, from 73°F to 50°F, rarely falling below 35°F or exceeding 77°F. For reference, on July 22, the hottest day of the year, temperatures in Orange Beach typically range from 75°F to 90°F, while on January 29, the coldest day of the year, they range from 44°F to 62°F. The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average fall temperatures. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day. El Hamma, Tunisia (5,470 miles away) and Longmen, China (8,267 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Orange Beach (view comparison). CloudsThe fall in Orange Beach experiences gradually decreasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy decreasing from 48% to 41%. The lowest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 33% on October 27. The clearest day of the fall is October 27, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 67% of the time. For reference, on July 21, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 61%, while on October 27, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 67%. PrecipitationA wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In Orange Beach, the chance of a wet day over the course of the fall is very rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 40% and ending it at 28%. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 58% on July 28, and its lowest chance is 20% on October 15. RainfallTo show variation within the season and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day rainfall during the fall in Orange Beach is decreasing, starting the season at 4.6 inches, when it rarely exceeds 8.3 inches or falls below 1.5 inches, and ending the season at 3.8 inches, when it rarely exceeds 6.9 inches or falls below 1.5 inches. The lowest average 31-day accumulation is 3.5 inches on October 22. SunOver the course of the fall in Orange Beach, the length of the day is very rapidly decreasing. From the start to the end of the season, the length of the day decreases by 2 hours, 25 minutes, implying an average daily decrease of 1 minute, 36 seconds, and weekly decrease of 11 minutes, 14 seconds. The shortest day of the fall is November 30, with 10 hours, 21 minutes of daylight and the longest day is September 1, with 12 hours, 45 minutes of daylight. The latest sunrise of the fall in Orange Beach is 7:04 AM on November 1 and the earliest sunrise is 59 minutes earlier at 6:05 AM on November 2. The latest sunset is 7:12 PM on September 1 and the earliest sunset is 2 hours, 23 minutes earlier at 4:49 PM on November 30. Daylight saving time (DST) ends at 1:00 AM on November 2, 2025, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour earlier. For reference, on June 21, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:49 AM and sets 14 hours, 6 minutes later, at 7:55 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 6:42 AM and sets 10 hours, 12 minutes later, at 4:54 PM. The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation. MoonThe figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the fall of 2025. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon. HumidityWe base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night. The chance that a given day will be muggy in Orange Beach is very rapidly decreasing during the fall, falling from 92% to 16% over the course of the season. For reference, on August 6, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 97% of the time, while on January 29, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 3% of the time. WindThis section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages. The average hourly wind speed in Orange Beach is rapidly increasing during the fall, increasing from 7.3 miles per hour to 10.3 miles per hour over the course of the season. For reference, on January 5, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 10.6 miles per hour, while on August 9, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 6.7 miles per hour. The wind direction in Orange Beach during the fall is predominantly out of the east from September 1 to November 11 and the north from November 11 to November 30. Water TemperatureOrange Beach is located near a large body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, or large lake). This section reports on the wide-area average surface temperature of that water. The average surface water temperature in Orange Beach is very rapidly decreasing during the fall, falling by 15°F, from 84°F to 69°F, over the course of the season. Growing SeasonDefinitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere). The growing season in Orange Beach typically lasts for 9.5 months (287 days), from around February 22 to around December 6, rarely starting before January 30 or after March 23, and rarely ending before November 12 or after January 1. The fall in Orange Beach is more likely than not fully within the growing season, with the chance that a given day is in the growing season rapidly decreasing from 100% to 62% over the course of the season. Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F. The average accumulated growing degree days in Orange Beach are very rapidly increasing during the fall, increasing by 1,746°F, from 4,828°F to 6,574°F, over the course of the season. Solar EnergyThis section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation. The average daily incident shortwave solar energy in Orange Beach is rapidly decreasing during the fall, falling by 1.8 kWh, from 5.2 kWh to 3.3 kWh, over the course of the season. TopographyFor the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Orange Beach are 30.294 deg latitude, -87.574 deg longitude, and 3 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of Orange Beach is essentially flat, with a maximum elevation change of 26 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 4 feet. Within 10 miles is also essentially flat (95 feet). Within 50 miles is essentially flat (308 feet). The area within 2 miles of Orange Beach is covered by water (46%), artificial surfaces (23%), and trees (23%), within 10 miles by water (48%) and cropland (22%), and within 50 miles by water (60%) and trees (18%). Data SourcesThis report illustrates the typical weather in Orange Beach, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016. Temperature and Dew PointThere are 2 weather stations near enough to contribute to our estimation of the temperature and dew point in Orange Beach. For each station, the records are corrected for the elevation difference between that station and Orange Beach according to the International Standard Atmosphere , and by the relative change present in the MERRA-2 satellite-era reanalysis between the two locations. The estimated value at Orange Beach is computed as the weighted average of the individual contributions from each station, with weights proportional to the inverse of the distance between Orange Beach and a given station. The stations contributing to this reconstruction are:
To get a sense of how much these sources agree with each other, you can view a comparison of Orange Beach and the stations that contribute to our estimates of its temperature history and climate. Please note that each source's contribution is adjusted for elevation and the relative change present in the MERRA-2 data. Other DataAll data relating to the Sun's position (e.g., sunrise and sunset) are computed using astronomical formulas from the book, Astronomical Algorithms 2nd Edition , by Jean Meeus. All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid. Land Use data comes from the Global Land Cover SHARE database , published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Elevation data comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) , published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Names, locations, and time zones of places and some airports come from the GeoNames Geographical Database . Time zones for airports and weather stations are provided by AskGeo.com . Maps are © OpenStreetMap contributors. DisclaimerThe information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site. We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands. We further caution that our travel scores are only as good as the data that underpin them, that weather conditions at any given location and time are unpredictable and variable, and that the definition of the scores reflects a particular set of preferences that may not agree with those of any particular reader. Please review our full terms contained on our Terms of Service page. |