Winters in Alabama are generally mild, with average January low temperatures around 40 °F (4 °C) in Mobile and around 32 °F (0 °C) in Birmingham.

By 1860, Alabama’s population had increased to 964,201 people, of which nearly half, 435,080, were enslaved African Americans, and 2,690 were free people of color.

Suburban Baldwin County, along the Gulf Coast, is the largest county in Alabama in both land area and water area.

The use of state names derived from Native American languages is common in the U.S.; an estimated 26 states have names of Native American origin.

An 1842 article in the Jacksonville Republican proposed that “Alabama” meant ‘Here We Rest’, a notion popularized in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beaufort Meek.

The first capitol building in Montgomery burned down in 1849, but it was rebuilt on the same site in 1851. The second capitol building, designed by Barachias Holt of Exeter, Maine, remains to the present day.

Alabama has a coastline along the Gulf of Mexico on the extreme southern edge of the state.

The new voter registration laws, particularly the cumulative poll tax, also disenfranchised poor white voters. By 1941, whites constituted a slight majority of those disenfranchised by these laws, with 600,000 whites and 520,000 African Americans losing the ability to vote.

Greater Birmingham is Alabama’s largest metropolitan area and its economic center.

The peak tornado season varies across Alabama, with a primary season in the spring and a secondary season in November and December.