NICE SATURDAY, STORMS SUNDAY: Saturday will start off with plenty of sunshine throughout the daylight hours, before clouds start moving in ahead of unsettled weather that will affect Alabama through midweek. We’ll stay dry and afternoon highs will reach the lower to mid-80s.

A surface low will develop to our west-southwest on Sunday that will move in our general direction throughout the day. Showers and storms will move into  western Alabama by mid-afternoon, dissipating a little during the late night and keeping a decent chance of showers and a few rumbles of thunder overnight. Afternoon highs will be in the upper 70s to the mid 80s.

There is the potential for a few stronger to severe storms in the western parts of the state, mainly west of a line from Addison (Winston County) to Brookwood (Tuscaloosa County) to Safford (Dallas County). Isolated damaging wind gusts up to 60 mph and quarter-sized hail will be possible. For now, the main window for stronger storms will be from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

UNSETTLED THROUGH MIDWEEK: Another surface low will form to our southwest on Monday that will continue to send moisture-rich air in our direction. Our atmosphere will continue to be unstable, especially with the heating of the day. Therefore, rain and storms will be likely with the potential of a few becoming strong to severe. We’ll get a better look at this setup once we get close enough for the higher-resolution models to come into view. Highs will be in the lower to mid-80s.

A cold front will approach Alabama Tuesday and will slowly move into the northwestern parts of the state by sunset. Out ahead of the front, the atmosphere will become unstable again, so stronger to severe storms may be possible, especially during the afternoon and evening. Highs will range from the lower 80s in the northwest to around 90 degrees in the southeast.

By the morning rush hour on Wednesday, the cold front will have made it past the I-59 corridor and will continue on its slow trek through the remainder of central Alabama. Some instability will form ahead of the front, but numbers are not all that impressive at this point. While a strong storm is not out of the question, this may just end up with your normal showers and thunderstorms along and ahead of the front, while drier air will move in behind it. Highs will be in the mid-70s to the lower 80s.

A trough will begin sweeping through the northern parts of the state on Thursday that will bring some clouds and maybe squeeze out a few sprinkles, but I believe we’ll stay dry at this point. Highs will be in the lower 70s to the lower 80s.

We’ll be on the back side of the trough on Friday, with all the rain activity pushing out over the Atlantic Ocean. We do see some moisture stretching back over portions of the Southeast and just into the extreme northern parts of the state, but central Alabama will stay dry with mainly sunny skies. Highs will be in the lower to mid-80s.

ON THIS DATE IN 1990: Thunderstorms produced severe weather from northern Alabama to North Carolina. There were 63 reports of large hail or damaging winds, with hail 4 inches in diameter reported near Cartersville, Georgia. Ten cities in the southeastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date as readings warmed into the 90s. Jacksonville, Florida, reported a record high of 96 degrees. Late-night thunderstorms over central Texas produced up to 10 inches of rain in southern Kimble County and northern Edwards County.

BEACH FORECAST CENTER: Get the latest weather and rip current forecasts for the beaches from Dauphin Island to Panama City Beach, Florida, on our Beach Forecast Center page. There, you can select the forecast of the region you are interested in.

For more weather news and information from James Spann, Scott Martin and other members of the James Spann team, visit AlabamaWx.