Muscle Shoals

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond this area.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every storm within 100 miles

1. Tropical storms and hurricanes (34 kt or more, still tropical) at closest approach. Post-tropical remnants with gale-force winds are listed but not counted. Direct: track within 50 miles; near: within 100 miles. Distance is measured to the county boundary for counties and to the city centre for cities, using positions interpolated hourly between HURDAT2 fixes.

National Hurricane Center HURDAT2, 1851 to 2025.

Every large fire

1. Large fires mapped by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program since 1984: 1,000 acres or more in the West, 500 or more in the East. Prescribed burns are excluded. Acres here are the part of each perimeter inside this place.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), 1984 to 2026.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Flood insurance figures are for Colbert County, the county that contains Muscle Shoals.

Claims by ZIP code

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

The drought index is for Colbert County, the county that contains Muscle Shoals.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the city centre.
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Mar 24, 2023Thunderstorm Wind$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A bow echo from an embedded supercell within a line of thunderstorms intensified and produced a long-lived and at times wide swath of wind damage as it entered the Shoals, including Tuscumbia, Sheffield and Muscle Shoals, to the northeast part of the county before crossing the Tennessee River. Wind speeds were measured over 60 mph at multiple locations, and gusts may have reached up to 80-90 mph when a brick wall of a two story building collapsed and a large part of roofing was taken off another portion of the building. Trees, power poles and power lines were taken down in numerous locations. According to utilities in Sheffield, Tuscumbia and Muscle Shoals, over 60 power poles…

2. Jul 1, 2023Thunderstorm Wind$7.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A power pole was knocked down at 79890 Underwood Mountain Road. Time estimated from radar.

3. Feb 17, 2022Strong Wind, Colbert$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Sustained gradient winds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts between 40 and 50 mph occurred across much of the county. Some trees brought power lines and trees, which caused power outages to occur.

4. Sep 16, 2004High Wind, Colbert$2.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The remnants of Hurricane Ivan produced extensive wind damage as over 500 trees were blown down across north Alabama. A few trees were blown down onto homes with damage occurring due to the trees falling. Many power lines were blown down due to the high winds.

5. Dec 23, 1998Ice Storm, Colbert$1.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A winter storm brought a mixture of freezing rain...sleet...and rain to the northern half of Alabama. The northwestern quarter of Alabama was especially hard hit. The precipitation began in a narrow band across Fayette, Walker, Cullman, and Marshall counties around 2 am and then around 5am in the rest of the counties and lasted until early afternoon on the 24th. The northwestern quarter of the state saw temperatures at or below freezing for the majority of the event. Liquid equivalent precipitation ranged from one to three inches. Significant ice accumulations of one half to one inch were common across the area. Numerous trees were down across every county. Significant power…

6. Oct 18, 2007Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A powerline was blown down on a truck on Midland Avenue in the Muscle Shoals community.

7. Dec 20, 2007Strong Wind, Colbert$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong winds around 45 mph affected Lawrence County downing numerous trees, particularly in the Speake community.

8. Aug 17, 2007Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Trees and street signs blown down on Highway 227 between Muscle Shoals and Zip City.

9. Oct 18, 2007Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A large tree was blown down on a house in the Muscle Shoals community on 2nd street.

10. May 20, 2025Tornado$608,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    The tornado touched down near Ford City where initial tree limbs snapped then rapidly began uprooting numerous trees north of River Road. Several trees were uprooted on River Road. One of these trees fell on a home and the drywall fell and scratched a child, resulting in one injury. North of River Road, several trees were found uprooted along with two collapsed silos along Sprout Spring Hollow Road. These silos had been in place since the 1930s and were completely destroyed, marking the maximum intensity of 105 mph. The tornado then tracked east-southeast toward Foster Mills and Red Bank, uprooting numerous trees along its path and snapping large limbs. The tornado then proceeded…

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

107°F3 times, most recently Jun 30, 2012

All-time low

−11°FJan 21, 1985

Warmest night

81°FJul 11, 1980

Coldest day

9°FJan 10, 1962

Wettest day

6.01 inMar 15, 2025

Snowiest day

9.0 inJan 29, 1966

Hottest year

2024mean 65.1°F

Coldest year

1976mean 58.0°F

Wettest year

197578.78 in

Driest year

194330.92 in

Snowiest season

18.5 in1967-68

Station Muscle Shoals Airport (USW00013896), 544 ft elevation, 1.9 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1940 to October 26, 2026; 97.7% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

Declarations for Colbert County.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USW00013896.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.