James Spann: A few showers for Alabama today; more rain by late Wednesday

RADAR CHECK: We have showers this morning over northwest Alabama ahead of a surface front, and also areas of light rain over the southwest corner of the state. Showers over the northern half of the state will end later this morning, and any rain this afternoon will be confined to far south Alabama. The sky will be generally cloudy today with a high in the mid to upper 70s for most places.

Tuesday will be mostly sunny and dry with the exception of Mobile and Baldwin counties, where a few showers are possible. An upper trough and surface front will bring a chance of rain statewide Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning. This system has potential to bring 1 inch of rain to northwest Alabama, with one-half to 1 inch for the central counties. Amounts will be less than one-half inch for south Alabama.

The high will be in the 70s Tuesday, but temperatures won’t get out of the 60s Thursday.

FRIDAY AND THE WEEKEND: Expect beautiful fall weather with sunny, pleasant days and clear, cool nights. Highs will be in the 60s Friday and close to 70 over the weekend. Lows drop into the 40s, and some colder spots over north Alabama could reach the 30s early Saturday morning.

NEXT WEEK: For now, much of the week looks dry, but some rain is possible by Friday, Nov. 22.

TROPICS: A broad area of low pressure is expected to form over the western Caribbean Sea during the next couple of days. Environmental conditions appear conducive for some gradual development of this system thereafter, and a tropical depression could form late this week or this weekend while moving slowly westward. The National Hurricane Center gives it a 30% chance of development over the next seven days.

Long-range global models suggest that if it develops, this feature will turn to the east/northeast and could be close to the southern tip of Florida in 10 days before heading out into the Atlantic with no impact on the central Gulf Coast. But that could easily change.

ON THIS DATE IN 1911: A powerful cold front, known as the Great Blue Norther of 1911, produced some of the most extreme temperature changes to the nation’s midsection. Ahead of the cold front, a warm, moist environment caused a severe weather outbreak, with several strong tornadoes reported in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. An estimated F4 tornado occurred from Janesville to Milton, Wisconsin, causing extensive damage to several farms and killing nine people. The residents of Janesville, Wisconsin, reported blizzard conditions with a temperature near zero within an hour of the tornado.

For more weather news and information from James Spann and his team, visit AlabamaWx.