James Spann has the midweek forecast for Alabama from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

ANOTHER QUIET DAY AHEAD: We expect few, if any, showers over the northern two-thirds of Alabama today; the sky will be partly to mostly sunny with a high between 87 and 90 degrees. The average high for Birmingham on Sept. 9 is 88. Isolated showers could form this afternoon over south Alabama, but even there most communities will remain dry.

THURSDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND: Moisture levels rise on Thursday, and we will introduce some risk of isolated afternoon showers statewide. Still, most communities will be dry with a partly sunny sky. Coverage of afternoon showers and thunderstorms should increase Friday through the weekend. Still no washout, but the chance of any one community seeing rain Saturday and Sunday will be in the 60-70% range. Most of the showers over the weekend will come from noon to midnight, but we can’t rule out a rogue late-night or morning shower in spots. Highs will be between 85 and 89 degrees.

NEXT WEEK: Expect no real change in the weather; a moist air mass holds. Each day we will have a mix of sun and clouds with scattered showers and thunderstorms, especially during the afternoon and evening. Highs will be in the 80s.

TROPICS: We are at the climatological peak of the hurricane season and things are busy across the Atlantic basin. Invest 94L is about 400 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, with minimal shower and thunderstorm activity. Gradual development of the low is possible during the next two or three days, and it could become a tropical depression while it continues to move slowly west-northwestward toward the coasts of South and North Carolina. The National Hurricane Center has lowered the chance of development to 30%; one way or another, the main impact will be rain for the east part of the Carolinas and Virginia late this week.

A tropical wave is forecast to emerge off the west coast of Africa Thursday. Gradual development is expected once the system moves over water, and a tropical depression is likely to form late this week or over the weekend while the system moves generally westward across the eastern tropical Atlantic. It remains to be seen if this will ultimately affect any land mass. This feature will most likely get the name Sally once it develops.

TROPICAL STORM PAULETTE: Paulette is a highly sheared tropical storm in the Central Atlantic with winds of 60 mph. It is expected to remain below hurricane strength over the next five days, and it will gain latitude over the weekend. Most global models suggest Paulette will recurve into the Atlantic well east of the U.S.

TROPICAL DEPRESSION RENE: Rene weakened to a depression last night; it is in the far eastern Atlantic and will remain over the open water, far from land, through the weekend. It is forecast by the NHC to briefly become a hurricane Friday before weakening again over the weekend. It will turn north and is no threat to the U.S.

The Gulf of Mexico will remain quiet for the next five to seven days.

ON THIS DATE IN 1965: Hurricane Betsy slammed into New Orleans; 110 mph winds and power failures were reported. The eye of the storm passed southwest of New Orleans on a northwesterly track. The northern and western eyewalls covered southeast Louisiana and the New Orleans area from about 8 p.m. until 4 a.m. In Thibodaux, winds of 130 mph to 140 mph were reported. Hurricane Betsy was the first hurricane to accrue damages over $1 billion, and was thus nicknamed “Billion Dollar Betsy.” Because of the tremendous amount of damage caused, “Betsy” was retired from the hurricane list and replaced with the name “Blanche.”

ON THIS DATE IN 2017: Hurricane Irma was weakening a bit over Cuba after making landfall the night before at Category 5 strength. This made Irma only the second Category 5 hurricane to strike Cuba in recorded history, after the 1924 Cuba hurricane. It was also the third-strongest Atlantic hurricane at landfall ever recorded, just behind the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane and Hurricane Dorian. The hurricane strengthened back into a Category 4 prior to hitting the Keys. The Florida Keys suffered the worst of the damage in the United States.

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