SEVERE CLEAR: With sunshine in full supply, temperatures are between 77 and 81 degrees this afternoon across Alabama. Tonight will be clear with a low in the 50s.Dry weather will continue through the weekend with sunny days and fair nights. Highs will be in the low 80s through Friday, but a nice surge of cooler air arrives Saturday, with the high dropping to near 70 degrees over the northern half of the state. Colder spots over north Alabama could see lows in the 30s early Sunday morning for the first time this season. Sunday will be another sunny day with a high in the low 70s.

NEXT WEEK: Expect sunny days and clear nights, with highs mostly in the 70s and lows in the 40s and 50s. There’s still no sign of any big rain event through mid-October.Some notes on the dry conditions (based on data at Birmingham):

• Today will be the eighth consecutive day with no measurable rain.
• Our last measurable rain was on Sept. 25, but the amount was only 0.03 inch.
• We have gone without measurable rain on 22 of the last 23 days.
• The last day with more than one-tenth of an inch of rain was Sept. 4, when the total was 1.55 inches.

TROPICS: A tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic has a high chance of development over the next five days, but it will turn northward and encounter unfavorable conditions by the weekend, far from land.

Showers and thunderstorms associated with a tropical wave several hundred miles east of the southern Windward Islands have changed little in organization during the last several hours. Slow development is possible during the next several days while the wave moves generally westward at 15 to 20 mph, reaching the Windward Islands and the eastern Caribbean Sea by midweek. The National Hurricane Center has dropped the chance of development over the next five days to 30%. It’s far too early to know the final destination or intensity — just something to watch for now.ON THIS DATE IN 1964: Hurricane Hilda made landfall just southeast of Burns Point, Louisiana, around 5 p.m. CT as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 105 mph. The majority of deaths associated with Hilda in Louisiana were a result of tornadoes spawned by the hurricane in its outer peripheral rain bands and squall lines. The hurricane caused six tornadoes and two waterspouts in Louisiana. Despite tracking for only 1-1.5 miles near Larose, Louisiana, a violent F4 tornado killed 22 people and injured 165 others, destroying 35 homes in the process.

ON THIS DATE IN 1979: An F4 tornado struck the towns of Windsor, Windsor Locks and Suffield in Connecticut, causing an estimated $400 million in property damage. The New England Air Museum, which housed more than 20 vintage aircraft, was destroyed. This tornado also caused a United Airlines flight to abort a landing at the Bradley International Airport because the pilot saw the tornado

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