James Spann says Alabama will be much colder today from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

WINDY, COLDER: Rain is still falling early this morning over east and south Alabama; that rain ends by mid-morning, and today will be cloudy, breezy and much colder, with temperatures holding in the 40s all day over the northern half of the state. The sky will clear tonight, and most places across north and central Alabama will drop into the 20s early Wednesday morning.

REST OF THE WEEK: The weather looks dry Wednesday through Friday with cool days and chilly nights. Highs will be in the 50s; morning lows will be in the 20s early Thursday and close to freezing Friday morning. Look for lots of sunshine Wednesday and Thursday, then a partly sunny sky Friday.

THE ALABAMA WEEKEND: A surface low moving along the Gulf Coast will bring rain back to Alabama over the weekend. Global models are not in very good agreement, so the timing of the rain is a low-confidence forecast. For now, we will bring in a chance of rain Saturday, Saturday night and into at least part of the day Sunday. It certainly won’t rain all weekend, but expect periods of rain with highs in the 50s. There will be no risk of severe storms and probably not much thunder. Heavier rain amounts should be over south Alabama, where more than 1 inch is possible. Totals over the northern half of the state, most likely, will be less than 1 inch.

CHRISTMAS WEEK: For now the weather looks dry all week, and very comfortable with highs in the 60s, almost 10 degrees above average for late December in Alabama.

MONDAY’S STORMS: Two people were killed by a tornado in north Lawrence County late Monday. The fatalities, identified by officials as husband and wife, were on the north side of Lawrence County Road 265 near Town Creek. Four others on the road were critically injured, including a 7-year-old child who was transported to Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham.

Significant tornado damage was also reported last night from a long-track supercell storm just west of Demopolis, and near Montevallo and Ashby in parts of Bibb and Shelby counties. To our knowledge, there were no injuries in those places.

ON THIS DATE IN 1924: From the Monthly Weather Review, “a severe glaze storm occurred in west-central Illinois on December 17 and 18, the area of great destruction embracing a territory about 75 miles in width and 170 miles in length. In the affected area, trees were badly damaged, wires broken and thousands of electric poles went down. Electric services were paralyzed, and it required weeks to restore operation and months to permanently rebuild the lines.”

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