Name: Rip Current in Alabama, September 13, 2001
Start: 2001-09-13T14:00
End: 2001-09-13T14:00
Location: Alabama

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: 1
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Mobile, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 13, 1:25 PM CST, 35 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 13, 1:25 PM CST, 35 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOBILE AL
225 PM CDT THU SEP 13 2001

WE ARE GOING TO HOIST THE HEAVY SURF ADVISORY FROM DAUPHIN ISLAND
EAST TO DESTIN.  PENSACOLA BEACH OFFICIALS REPORT ROUGH SURF DUE TO
HIGH SWELLS COMING ONSHORE.  WAVE PERIODS IN BUOY DATA HAVE BEEN
INCREASING PAST FEW HOURS...CURRENTLY RUNNING 7 TO 9 SECONDS.

REGULAR AFTERNOON DISCUSSION TO FOLLOW NEXT HOUR.

/05

.MOB...
AL...HEAVY SURF ADVISORY DAUPHIN ISLAND EASTWARD TO STATE LINE.
     SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY GMZ630-650-670.
FL...HEAVY SURF ADVISORY PENSACOLA EASTWARD TO DESTIN.
     SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY GMZ655-675.
MS...NONE.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 rip current. Local standard time, as filed.

Rip Current, Baldwin

When: September 13, 2:00 PM CST
Where: Baldwin County, Orange Beach
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates: 30.661, -87.750 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

A 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.

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Rip Current, Baldwin	2001-09-13	67	Male	In Water	Direct

What these are

Rip Current: A narrow, fast current flowing away from the beach that caused a drowning or rescue.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Alabama in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Alabama, September 2001

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: 5268221.