Red Bay, Alabama

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1936 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Red Bay census division. It lies in ZIP code area 35582. It stands on Norman Branch. The Survey maps it on the Red Bay quadrangle. 3,232 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 645 feet above sea level.

Red Bay within Franklin County

Population over time

2 figures

Red Bay grew from 3,158 to 3,232 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.

Year	People	Change
2010	3,158
2020	3,232	+74 (+2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 12 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.

1936 USGS Red Bay quadrangle1:24000
1951 USGS Red Bay quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
1956 USGS Tupelo quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1958 USGS Tupelo quadrangle1:250000
1981 USGS Red Bay quadrangle1:24000
1984 USGS Tupelo quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1984 USGS Tupelo quadrangle1:100000

Fires near this place

90 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 90 fires within 5 miles of Red Bay between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,553 acres in total. None started naturally. 38 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
Arson/incendiarism	38
Debris and open burning	24
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	21
Equipment and vehicle use	3
Smoking	2
Recreation and ceremony	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1

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

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
4 August 2006	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	Mississippi Forestry Commission	not named
4 August 1999	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	Mississippi Forestry Commission	not named
30 August 1999	Arson/incendiarism	2.0 acres	Mississippi Forestry Commission	not named
27 August 2016	Debris and open burning	3.0 acres	Mississippi Forestry Commission	2361
26 August 1999	Arson/incendiarism	2.0 acres	Mississippi Forestry Commission	not named
24 August 2002	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	Mississippi Forestry Commission	not named
2 August 2006	Arson/incendiarism	3.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
16 August 2006	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Mississippi Forestry Commission	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Franklin County

Storms near this place

38 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Red Bay in 38 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 19 thunderstorm wind, 15 hail, 3 flash flood, 1 funnel cloud. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
October 1997	Hail	Red Bay	$20,000	Baseball sized hail was reported in Red Bay, in the western part of the county.
March 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	$10,000	A few trees and power lines were downed by thunderstorm winds along highway 19 and 11, near Red Bay, Alabama.
June 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	$10,000	A couple of trees and power lines were downed by thunderstorm winds near the intersection of highway 247 and highway 24.
February 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	$10,000	Trees were downed near Red Bay High School. One building was damaged in the city of Red Bay. Trees were downed and blocked SR 24 east of Red Bay.
January 1997	Hail	Red Bay	$8,000	no account filed
November 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	$5,000	no account filed
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	$4,000	A few trees were reported down along highway 11 in the Red Bay community.
November 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	$4,000	Numerous trees and power lines were blown down in the city of Red Bay.
October 1997	Hail	Red Bay	$3,000	Hail the size of quarters was reported west of Red Bay.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	$2,000	Trees and power lines were knocked down along Highway 19 outside of Red Bay.
April 2000	Hail	Red Bay	$2,000	One inch diameter size hail was observed in Red Bay.
March 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	$1,500	A tree was blown down onto power lines. Time was estimated from radar.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	$1,000	The public estimated up to 55 mph wind gusts.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	$1,000	A few trees were blown down near Red Bay and roadways were temporarily blocked.
March 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	-	Numerous locations reporting trees and power lines down near Red Bay.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	-	Trees and power lines were knocked down on Newell Road. Several power outages in the area of Red Bay were reported.
October 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	-	A broken line of entered western Franklin County just after 12:00 AM CST producing significant damage in the town of Red Bay. The initial damage was seen around the Red Bay High School where bleachers were lifted through a net and fence at the softball field and a roof was torn off a dugout. A large portion of a metal roof was lifted off a home on the south side of the school. Just east of the school, along Bullard Drive, several large hardwood trees on a hill were snapped near the base. Additional trees in this area were snapped or uprooted. All the trees in this area were laying in the same direction, suggesting very strong straight-line winds approaching 100 mph.\|\|The pocket of very strong and damaging winds continued to spread across the Red Bay Cemetery, just north of Old Vina Road. At this location, several large trees were either uprooted or snapped near their bases. The concentration of strongest winds appeared to occur between Bullard Drive and 10th Street East near the cemetery.\|\|Additional sporadic damage occurred to the east-northeast between 10th Street East and Highway 24. At Mud Creek Road and Highway 24, two power poles were snapped along with a 10 by 10 foot shed partially destroyed. Just east of this location, a portion of a gas station canopy was pulled off. This was the final piece of damage seen along the path of this wind maxima.
March 2013	Hail	Red Bay	-	Quarter size hail was reported.
April 2006	Hail	Red Bay	-	Nickel size hail was reported.
January 2006	Flash Flood	Red Bay	-	Numerous roads flooded and barricaded throughout the county.
March 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	-	Trees were blown down.
March 2005	Hail	Red Bay	-	Penny size hail reported.
March 2005	Hail	Red Bay	-	Golf ball size hail reported between Red Bay and Belgreen.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	-	Numerous trees and power lines were knocked down due to both strong winds and lightning strikes.
December 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	-	A few trees and power lines were blown down by thunderstorm winds.
December 2004	Flash Flood	Red Bay	-	Flash flooding occurred and increased countywide from initially around Red Bay through the rest of the county. Rainfall amounts ranging from three to five inches across the county resulted in water covering several roads and an isolated mud slide along state road 247.
June 2004	Flash Flood	Red Bay	-	Flash flooding was occurring with several inches of water over the road along highway 24.
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	-	A few power lines were blown down due to thunderstorm winds.
July 2004	Hail	Red Bay	-	Penny size hail reported.
June 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	-	several trees down on county roads 25, 23 and 15.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Bay	-	few trees down.
May 2003	Hail	Red Bay	-	penny size hail reported.
May 1999	Hail	Red Bay	-	Nickel size hail fell in Red Bay.
December 1999	Hail	Red Bay	-	Dime size hail was reported near Red Bay.
May 1995	Hail	Red Bay	-	One-inch hail was reported in at Red Bay. A funnel cloud was reported over downtown Russellville.
December 2005	Hail	Red Bay	-	no account filed
November 2002	Hail	Red Bay	-	no account filed
November 1996	Funnel Cloud	Red Bay	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Franklin 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Halltown	4.3 miles	11
Seven Pines	4.5 miles	11
Old Burleson	5.9 miles	11
Vina	6.2 miles	11
Burntout	6.3 miles	11
Jordans Mill	7.5 miles	11
Piney Bend	8.1 miles	12
Pleasant Site	8.1 miles	13

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 Red Bay	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q80035	The 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 155213. 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.

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.