WARM AFTERNOONS, PLEASANT NIGHTS: The sky is partly to mostly sunny across Alabama this afternoon with temperatures between 77 and 82 degrees. Tonight will remain mostly fair with a low in the 50s.Dry weather continues through the weekend with mostly sunny days and fair nights. Highs will be in the low to mid 80s through Friday, but a cooler air mass arrives over the weekend, with highs between 70 and 75 degrees by Saturday and Sunday. Lows will be well down in the 40s early Sunday, and colder spots over north Alabama could reach the 30s for the first time this season.

NEXT WEEK: There’s still no sign of any rain; highs will be mostly in the 70s with lows in the 50s. The next chance of rain will most likely be in the Oct. 10-15 range.Some notes on the dry conditions (based on data at Birmingham):

• Today is the ninth 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 23 of the last 24 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 broad area of low pressure a couple of hundred miles east of the southern Windward Islands (Invest 91L) is producing an area of showers and thunderstorms to the southeast of an ill-defined center. Upper-level winds are likely to become more conducive for development, and a tropical depression could form during the next couple of days, if the system stays far enough from land while moving westward at about 15 mph across the Windward Islands and southeastern Caribbean Sea. Conditions appear to become more conducive for development later this week when the system reaches the central and western Caribbean Sea. Regardless of development, locally heavy rainfall and gusty winds are expected over portions of the Windward Islands tonight and Wednesday.

For now, it looks like the system is headed for Central America, but it is still too early to know the final destination or intensity.ON THIS DATE IN 1957: The world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, was launched by the Soviet Union. Sputnik was about the size of a beach ball and weighed 183.9 pounds. It took about 98 minutes to orbit Earth on an elliptical path.

ON THIS DATE IN 2005: Hurricane Stan, a minimal Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph maximum sustained surface winds, made landfall near Punta Roca Partida, Mexico, at 4 a.m. EDT. While not a particularly strong hurricane, the torrential rains caused flooding and landslides, which resulted in 1,513 deaths in Guatemala.

BEACH FORECAST: Click here to see the AlabamaWx Beach Forecast Center page.

For more weather news and information from James Spann and his team, visit AlabamaWx.