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Orange Beach, Alabama

19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1921 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Foley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36561. It lies near Gilchrist Island. The Survey maps it on the Orange Beach quadrangle. 8,095 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 13 feet above sea level.

Orange Beach within Baldwin County

Population over time

2 figures

Orange Beach grew from 5,441 to 8,095 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20105,441
20208,095+2,654 (+49%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 19 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

47 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 47 fires within 5 miles of Orange Beach between 1994 and 2020, burning about 3,527 acres in total. 6 started naturally. 10 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning12
Arson/incendiarism10
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Natural6
Recreation and ceremony5
Equipment and vehicle use4
Fireworks1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
7 September 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined12 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionSWR-20130907-002
30 September 2004Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
18 September 2010Debris and open burningunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
26 August 2010Debris and open burningunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
24 August 2011Natural15 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionFISH TRAP ROAD, AL
4 July 2009Fireworks2.0 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionCANAL ROAD, AL
28 July 1998Arson/incendiarism300 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
20 July 2007Arson/incendiarism26 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Baldwin County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Orange Beach: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Bagley PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Baldwin County

Storms near this place

32 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Orange Beach in 32 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 9 waterspout, 5 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 5 flash flood. The reports record 4 deaths and 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 1996Rip CurrentOrange Beach1 killed, 1 hurtno account filed
September 2005Rip CurrentOrange Beach1 killedA forty-one year old female drowned in rough water while trying to save her son. The boy was rescued but the mother drowned. Red flags were flying warning people of dangerous surf conditions.
September 2001Rip CurrentOrange Beach1 killedA 67-year-old Florida man drowned while swimming in the western beach area of Orange Beach. The man was swimming approximately 50 feet offshore, between the first and second sandbars, when he was apparently pulled under by rough surf and strong rip currents. A person swimming nearby tried to rescue the man, but the currents were too strong for the individual to save the drowning man. Red Flags, which are used to alert swimmers to dangerous swimming and water conditions, were flying along area beaches. The rough surf and dangerous rip currents were the result, in part, to Tropical Storm Gabrielle, which was moving east across the far southeastern Gulf of Mexico.
October 1996Rip CurrentOrange Beach1 killedno account filed
September 1998Thunderstorm WindOrange Beach$20,000High winds damaged the roofs of a couple of homes in Orange Beach.
July 1997Tornado (F0)Orange Beach$20,000A tornado developed along the outer bands of hurricane Danny and moved in from the Gulf and destroyed a marina just south of Orange Beach. Several boats in the marina were damaged. The tornado was only on the ground for a short period of time. No one was injured by the tornado.
January 2005Thunderstorm WindOrange Beach$15,000Trees and power lines were blown down by winds from a thunderstorm. One of the trees fell on an automobile and damaged it.
October 2017Tornado (EF0)Orange Beach$5,000A brief EF-0 tornado touched down in Orange Beach Waterfront Park and produced some tree damage.
July 1995Thunderstorm WindOrange Beach$500A line of thunderstorms moved offshore south of Orange Beach and the Coast Guard had 25 to 30 boater assistance calls within a matter of minutes. Some of the boats turned over but no one was injured. The Coast Guard estimated wind speeds of 55 to 65 MPH.
November 1996Thunderstorm WindOrange Beach$500no account filed
October 2025Flash FloodOrange Beach-Water over numerous roads in Orange Beach, especially near Cotton Bayou overlook and Signal 12 along Perdido Beach Blvd. Many yards are flooded. 7.8 inches of rain at the nearby City Hall.
October 2025Heavy RainOrange Beach-Daily rainfall amount of 7.8 inches of rainfall measured at the mesonet station (FW3872 Orange Beach) at City Hall in Orange Beach, AL.
April 2023Thunderstorm WindOrange Beach-High winds downed trees.
June 2023Heavy RainOrange Beach-A total of 3.91 inches of rain was recorded over a 6 hour period at Mesonet Station FW3872.
April 2021HailOrange Beach-Two separate reports of softball size hail in Orange Beach. Significant hail damage reported to numerous vehicles and metal roofs in the area. This also set the record as the largest hail stone ever reported in Baldwin County.
September 2021Flash FloodOrange Beach-Williams Silvers Parkway, the east bound lanes of Canal Road, and Jubilee Point Road were all flooded in the Orange Beach area.
July 2021Flash FloodOrange Beach-Flash flooding in Orange Beach with knee high water in some locations. Water also approached homes in the area.
August 2017Flash FloodOrange Beach-Flooding caused several road closures in Orange Beach.
November 2009Flash FloodOrange Beach-Heavy rains from Tropical Storm Ida caused widespread street flooding in Orange Beach.
April 2001WaterspoutOrange Beach-A waterspout was observed just offshore of Orange Beach. The spout remained offshore for several minutes then dissipated over the water.
July 2001WaterspoutOrange Beach-A waterspout was observed offshore south of Orange Beach. The waterspout remained offshore and dissipated over the Gulf.
June 2000WaterspoutOrange Beach-A couple of waterspouts were seen offshore, south of Orange Beach. The waterspouts dissipated over the water.
August 2000WaterspoutOrange Beach-A waterspout was observed over the Gulf waters just offshore of Orange Beach. The waterspout remained offshore and dissipated.
July 1999WaterspoutOrange Beach-A dissipating waterspout was reported near Ono Island, east of Orange Beach.
January 1997HailOrange Beach-Dime size hail was reported around Orange Beach.
April 1997WaterspoutOrange Beach-A waterspout dissipated as it moved ashore at Orange Beach. No damage was found.
April 2021HailOrange Beach-no account filed
April 2021HailOrange Beach-no account filed
January 1997HailOrange Beach-no account filed
June 1996WaterspoutOrange Beach-no account filed
September 1996WaterspoutOrange Beach-no account filed
September 1996WaterspoutOrange Beach-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Baldwin County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Caswell1.8 miles19
Josephine3.2 miles19
Romar Beach3.5 miles19
Perdido Beach4.8 miles19
Miflin5.6 miles19
Swift6.3 miles17
Oak7.2 miles17
Foley Recreational Vehicle Park7.4 miles17

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Orange BeachAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q79603The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 124297. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.