THE ALABAMA WEEKEND: After a chilly start, clouds will increase throughout the day, but all the shower activity will be confined to the Gulf Coast. Highs will be in the upper 40s to the upper 50s.

Clouds will decrease Sunday and bright sunshine will return. However, we’ll hang on to the below-average temperatures, with highs in the mid 40s to the lower 50s.

NEXT WEEK: A shortwave will move toward Alabama Monday, bringing more clouds, but we look to stay dry at this point. We’ll start to see a warming trend, with highs in the lower 50s to the lower 60s. The first half of Tuesday looks dry, but, with the shortwave passing through, a few showers will become possible during the afternoon and into the evening. Highs will be in the 50s. A few showers look possible during the first half of Wednesday, dissipating by early afternoon. Highs will be in the upper 50s to the lower 60s.

The daylight on Thanksgiving Day looks dry with mostly sunny skies to start, but clouds will increase from the west as a frontal system approaches. Rain will start to move into western Alabama by sunset or just after and looks to make it to the I-59 corridor by midnight. Highs will be in the upper 50s to the upper 60s.

On Friday, rain will continue to push eastward as the front continues to move slowly through Alabama. Shoppers will definitely need to have an umbrella handy. Rain looks to be out of the area completely by midnight. Afternoon highs will be in the lower 50s to the lower 60s.

TROPICS: The tropics are all quiet at this point as we near the end of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. No new tropical or subtropical systems are expected to form within the next five days.

ON THIS DATE IN 1988: Strong thunderstorms developed during the mid-morning and produced severe weather across eastern Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley into the wee hours of the night. Thunderstorms spawned 21 tornadoes, including 13 in Mississippi. One tornado killed two people and injured 11 others in Nettleton, Mississippi, and another tornado injured eight people in Tuscaloosa. Thunderstorms produced baseball-sized hail in east Texas and northern Louisiana, and Summit, Mississippi, was deluged with 6 inches of rain in four hours.

BEACH FORECAST: 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.