James Spann: Alabama stays dry through Saturday with pleasant afternoons, cool nights

DRY AIR: With sunny sky temperatures are mostly in the 70s across Alabama this afternoon. Tonight will be clear and cool with lows in the 40s and 50s.

Alabama’s weather won’t change much tomorrow through Saturday with sunny pleasant days and fair cool nights. Highs mostly in the 70s and low 80s, lows in the 40s and 50s. Clouds will begin to increase late Saturday ahead of disturbance that will bring our next chance of rain on Sunday. This will be cool rain in a stable airmass, so no risk of severe storms and probably thunder. Models are little more aggressive with rain amounts; it now looks like many communities could see one inch of rain Sunday and Sunday night. Temperatures will hold in the 60s all day.

NEXT WEEK: For now most of next week looks cool and dry. A few spotty showers can’t be rule out during the first half of the week with an upper trough overhead; Thursday and Friday should be totally rain-free. The weather will be very cool for Halloween with highs in the low to mid 60s Friday for much of the state. See the video briefing for maps, graphics and more details.

TROPICS: This afternoon Tropical Storm Melissa, with 45 mph winds, is about 200 miles south/southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. It is moving to the north/northwest at only 2 mph (basically stationary). Melissa is expected to meander around the Caribbean for the next five days just south of Jamaica… NHC is still forecasting it to become a hurricane by Saturday, and a major, category four hurricane by early next week as it drifts westward.

Due to Melissa’s slow motion, the risk of a prolonged multi-day period of potentially damaging winds, heavy rainfall resulting in life-threatening flash flooding and numerous landslides and coastal flooding continues to increase for Jamaica. Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion, since strong winds and flooding rains could begin in Jamaica by tomorrow or Saturday.

By the middle of next week the system should kick out to the northeast in response to a deep upper trough digging over the eastern part of North America. This will keep Melissa east of the U.S.

No tropical storms or hurricanes are expected across the Gulf for the next 10 days.

FOOTBALL WEATHER: The annual Magic City Classic is Saturday at Birmingham’s Legion Field; Alabama State vs Alabama A&M (2:30 p.m. kickoff). The sky will be partly sunny with temperatures in the mid 70s at kickoff, falling to near 70 degrees by the final whistle.

Auburn will be at Arkansas Saturday (11:45 a.m. kickoff) … the sky will be cloudy with periods of rain likely during the game; temperatures will hover in the low to mid 60s.

Alabama travels to Columbia to take on South Carolina Saturday (2:30 p.m. kickoff) … the weather will be dry with a sunny sky. Expect low 70s at kickoff, upper 60s by the final whistle.

ON THIS DATE IN 1947: Fish fell from the sky in Marksville, Louisiana. Thousands of fish fell from the sky in an area 1,000 feet long by 80 feet wide possibly due to a waterspout.

ON THIS DATE IN 2015: On this day, Hurricane Patricia became the most powerful tropical cyclone ever measured in the Western Hemisphere as its maximum sustained winds reached an unprecedented 200 mph and its central pressure fell to 879 millibars (25.96 inches of mercury).

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