Hurricane Ivan made landfall in Baldwin County, Alabama, just after 2 am on Thursday, September 16. At landfall, Ivan was a category 3 hurricane, with 130 mph sustained winds and a central pressure of 943 millibars (27.85 inches). Ivan continued moving north across southwest Alabama, weakening substantially as it moved along.

It became a tropical storm by 1 pm, as it approached the Birmingham metropolitan area with sustained winds of 70 mph and a central pressure of 975 mb (28.79 inches). By this time, rainfall had spread across the entire state, including into the Tennessee Valley.

By the time the center of Ivan moved into the Huntsville forecast area, it had weakened to a tropical depression. At 10pm, it only had sustained winds of 35 mph and a central pressure of 986 mb (29.12 inches), and it was centered near Guntersville. Rather than stalling out over northern Alabama, as had been forecast, the system was absorbed into an upper-level trough, which caused it to accelerate into the southern Appalachians and up into the mid-Atlantic states.