James Spann: Alabama to stay dry into next week as temperatures climb

DRY PATTERN PERSISTS: Alabama’s weather stays dry through the weekend with mostly sunny days and fair nights. Afternoon heat levels will continue to slowly rise; we expect highs in the mid to upper 80s in most places today and tomorrow, followed by low 90s Friday through the weekend. Morning lows will be in the 60s.

NEXT WEEK: Not much change. The weather looks dry at least for the first half of the week; global models suggest there could be a chance of at least scattered showers by Thursday and Friday.

TROPICS: Today is the climatological peak of the Atlantic hurricane season; despite that no tropical storms or hurricanes are expected across the entire basin at least for the next seven days.

ON THIS DATE IN 1960: The center of Hurricane Donna passed over the middle of the Florida Keys between 2 and 3 a.m. Donna was a Category 5 hurricane over the Atlantic and a Category 4 at landfall. This storm caused the deaths of over 100 in Puerto Rico, 50 in the United States, and 63 in a jet crash. The plane crash occurred on August 29th as a French airliner was attempting to land at Dakar, Senegal during a “blinding rainstorm.”

ON THIS DATE IN 2017: Hurricane Irma crossed the Florida Keys as a Category 4 storm. Irma then weakened to Category 3 status, prior to another landfall in Florida on Marco Island later that day. Irma caused widespread and catastrophic damage throughout its long lifetime, particularly in the northeastern Caribbean and the Florida Keys. It was also the most intense hurricane to strike the continental United States since Katrina in 2005, the first major hurricane to make landfall in Florida since Wilma in the same year and the first Category 4 hurricane to strike the state since Charley in 2004.

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