Flash Flood in Alabama, May 28, 1997

Name: Flash Flood in Alabama, May 28, 1997
Start: 1997-05-28T20:15
End: 1997-05-28T22:15
Location: Alabama

May 28, 1997 · NWS MOB · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 flash flood, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $10,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

The radar

The Mobile radar (KMOB), 4 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 02:12 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flash Flood, Mobile

When: May 28, 8:15 PM CST to 10:15 PM CST
Where: Mobile County, Mobile
Property damage: $10,000
Coordinates: 30.685, -88.197 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy rains fell around the Mobile area during the evening. The heaviest rain fell in the twelvemile and threemile creek basins, from Moffett Road, across Municipal Park across Airport Blvd to Cottage Hill Road at University. Up to 9 inches of rain fell in this area in 3 to 4 hours with 4.52 inches falling in one hour near the USA Campus. Several Streets in this area had standing water 3 to 4 feet deep in intersections. One such intersection was at University and Old Shell, near where the 4.52 inches of rainfall occurred. A mother and her young son tried to avoid this flooded intersection and became disoriented, driving into a flooded drainage ditch. The car they were in was then swept away into swollen twelvemile creek. Someone tried to save them but was unable to do so. The automobile was found one mile down the ditch and the two bodies were recovered two days later in Municipal Park Lake.

What these are

Flash Flood: Flooding that begins within six hours of the rain that causes it, or of a dam or levee failure or ice jam release, often with deadly speed.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Alabama in 1997 Every state in 1997 This day in weather history Warnings in Alabama, May 1997

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5600244.