James Spann has the Alabama forecast for Friday and a look at the weekend ahead from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

CALMER DAY: We still have a few lingering showers across north and central Alabama early this morning; those will end over the next few hours, and by afternoon rain will be confined to the southern half of the state. The sky becomes partly sunny, and today will be cooler, with a high in the 60- to 65-degree range.

THE WEEKEND: Dry weather is the story; look for a good supply of sunshine both days with afternoon highs close to 60 Saturday, followed by low to mid 60s Sunday. Mornings will be cold, with lows generally in the 30s over the northern half of the state; some frost is likely early Sunday, when the wind will be near calm, and colder spots will see a freeze.

NEXT WEEK: An unusually dry pattern for March sets up across the Deep South. We see no significant chance of rain through the week with cool days and chilly nights. Highs will be mostly in the 60s, lows in the 30s and 40s. Some scattered frost is a good possibility each morning Monday through Wednesday.

THURSDAY’S STORMS: Damage and/or tornado debris signatures appear on radar in Cullman, Marengo, Perry, Dallas, Bibb, Chilton, Coosa, Autauga, Elmore, St. Clair and Blount counties. Some of the more significant damage was in the White City community of Cullman County (just north of Hanceville), around Allgood in Blount County, south of Ashville in St. Clair County, and northeast of Clanton in Chilton County. Despite the damage, no serious injuries were reported, and there were no fatalities. National Weather Service survey teams will be in all of these areas today.

RAIN UPDATE: Birmingham’s rain total for the year is 14.76 inches; the surplus is 2.98 inches.

ON THIS DATE IN 1952: On Reunion Island, some 400 miles east of Madagascar, 127.56 inches of rain fell in a three-day period. This set a world record for the most rainfall in a 72-hour period. Also, from the 15th to the 16th, 73.62 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period at Cilaos, La Reunion Island in the South Indian Ocean, to set a world record.

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