RADAR CHECK: So far today, most of the showers and storms across Alabama have been over the southern half of the state. North Alabama is mostly sunny with temperatures in the low 90s, right at seasonal averages for late July. Some of the showers over south Alabama will work their way northward this evening before dissipating.

A few storms with heavy rain have been moving along the Gulf Coast today, on the northern periphery of the tropical depression in the Gulf.

FRIDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND: The weather won’t change much — partly sunny days with the risk of a few scattered, mostly afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms daily. Odds of any one spot getting wet will be around 30% each day, and highs will be close to 90 degrees as heat levels back down a bit across the Deep South.

NEXT WEEK: Sure looks like showers and thunderstorms will become more numerous across Alabama through much of next week as colder air aloft makes the air more unstable. We expect scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms each day with highs between 87 and 91 degrees.

TROPICAL DEPRESSION EIGHT: The tropical depression continues to move westward across the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to become Tropical Storm Hanna late tonight or Friday morning. Landfall comes Saturday morning along the Texas coast; the main impact will be potential for heavy rain and flooding over south Texas. The rip-current danger along the central Gulf Coast will ease by the weekend as the tropical system moves inland over Texas.

TROPICAL STORM GONZALO: This one is about 850 miles east of the Windward Islands in the open Atlantic with sustained winds of 60 mph. The compact system has looked rather disorganized on satellite images today and it is fighting lots of dry air. The National Hurricane Center is forecasting it to move through the Windward Islands Saturday afternoon and then into the open Caribbean. This is a very low-confidence intensity forecast; the system could dissipate entirely or it could hold together through the Caribbean as a tropical storm. It’s still way too early to know whether this will impact the U.S.

HURRICANE DOUGLAS: Over in the Pacific, Douglas is a major hurricane with winds of 120 mph; it will move over the Hawaiian Islands over the weekend as it weakens to a tropical storm. Still, the islands will see strong winds and heavy rain with potential for some flooding.

ON THIS DATE IN 1788: The storm known as George Washington’s Hurricane originated near Bermuda on July 19 before making landfall in Virginia. It passed directly over the Lower Chesapeake Bay and Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. This track is very similar to the path of the Chesapeake-Potomac hurricane of 1933. At Norfolk, winds increased at 5 p.m. on July 23, with the wind originating from the northeast. At 12:30 a.m., the wind suddenly shifted to the south and “blew a perfect hurricane, tearing down chimneys, fences,” according to a written account.

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