James Spann has the forecast for a cool Alabama Thursday and a weekend preview from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

COLD START: Here are some temperatures across Alabama just before daybreak:

• Millport — 22
• Gadsden — 23
• Talladega — 23
• Pell City — 23
• Fort Payne — 24
• Cullman — 24
• Hueytown — 25
• Decatur — 25
• Heflin — 26
• Demopolis — 27
• Tuscaloosa — 28
• Montgomery — 28
• Birmingham — 29
• Mobile — 32

Today will be another sunny, cool day with a high in the low 50s over north Alabama and 55-60 degrees over the southern counties. Tonight will be fair and cold with a light freeze for most places. On Friday, the sky will be partly sunny with a high in the mid 50s. Clouds increase Friday night.

RAIN FOR THE WEEKEND: A low-pressure area moving out of the Gulf of Mexico will bring a good soaking to our state over the weekend. The best chance of rain during the day Saturday will be over the southern half the state; rain becomes widespread statewide Saturday night and Sunday. The air will be stable, so there’s no risk of severe storms and probably very little thunder. Rain amounts for south Alabama will be in the 2- to 4-inch range, and some flooding can’t be ruled out. Totals of 1-2 inches are likely for north and central Alabama, with about one-half inch for the Tennessee Valley of far north Alabama.

CHRISTMAS WEEK: The weather will be dry with pleasant afternoons and chilly nights Monday through Thursday. Expect mostly sunny days and fair nights. Highs will be in the 60s, lows in the 30s and 40s. Clouds will increase Friday, and some rain seems possible Friday night or Saturday, Dec. 27-28, but there is great model disagreement, as you might expect that far out.

RAIN UPDATE: Here are rain totals since Jan. 1, and the departure from average:

• Mobile — 61.61 inches (deficiency of 2.35 inches)
• Tuscaloosa — 58.47 ( surplus of 7.59)
• Huntsville — 56.2 (surplus of 4.12)
• Anniston — 51.57 (surplus of 3.49)
• Birmingham — 49.89 (deficiency of 2.12)
• Montgomery — 45.14 (deficiency of 5.97)

ON THIS DATE IN 2009: Snowfall totals from 1 to 2 feet were commonplace in what will go down as one of the biggest snowstorms in history on the East Coast and the first of four snowstorms for the Mid-Atlantic during the winter of 2009-10. The 15 inches of snow measured at Reagan International Airport on Dec. 19 was the third-highest daily snowfall on any calendar day at Washington, D.C., since snowfall records began in 1884. The total storm snowfall of 16.4 inches on Dec 18-19, 2009, marks the sixth-highest two-day snowfall record for Washington, putting it just below the second President’s Day storm in 2003 and ahead of the January 1996 storm. Baltimore Washington Airport saw 20.5 inches of snow, which went down as the fifth-highest daily snowfall on any calendar day in Baltimore since snowfall records began in 1893.

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