James Spann: Alabama stays cool, wet at times through mid-week; dry Halloween

RADAR CHECK: Large areas of rain persist across Alabama early this morning, mainly over the eastern 2/3 of the state. The rain will diminish over the next few hours, and by afternoon only lingering isolated showers are expected. Highs today will range from the upper 50s over North Alabama to the mid 70s over the far southern part of the state.

Tomorrow will be generally cool and dry with only a small risk of any one given spot seeing a brief shower.

Then, another round of rain will move into the state late tomorrow night into Wednesday morning. The air will be cool and stable, and we don’t expect any thunder. This area of rain will move out of the state late Wednesday.

THURSDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND: The weather looks dry with cool days and chilly nights. Most North Alabama communities will drop into the 30s early Friday and Saturday morning with some scattered frost likely. Highs on Halloween and over the weekend will be in the 60s over North Alabama, with low 70s for the southern counties.

At this point much of the following week (November 3-7) looks dry with seasonal temperatures.

TROPICS: This morning dangerous Hurricane Melissa is packing sustained winds of 160 mph about 130 miles south/southwest of Kingston, Jamaica. It is moving to the west at only 3 mph.

Melissa is forecast to turn north and move over Jamaica tomorrow morning. Catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding and numerous landslides are likely today through tomorrow. Destructive winds, especially in the mountains, will begin by this evening, leading to extensive infrastructural damage, long-lasting power and communication outages and isolated communities. Life-threatening storm surge and damaging waves are expected along the southern coast through tomorrow.

Melissa will move over the eastern tip of Cuba Wednesday morning, as it turns northeast. It will remain well east of the U.S. Atlantic coast. The rest of the Atlantic basin is quiet, and no tropical storms or hurricanes are expected across the Gulf for at least the next 10 days.

ON THIS DATE IN 2006: A waterspout came ashore and caused significant damage as an EF-1 tornado on the west side of Apalachicola on the Florida coast.

For more weather news and information from James Spann and his team, visit the Alabama Weather Network.