James Spann forecasts another hot day for Alabama with only widely scattered showers from Alabama News Center on Vimeo.

NEW DAY, OLD FORECAST: An upper ridge is stretched out across the southern U.S. and will keep Alabama toasty through the weekend, with highs in the 90s and lows in the 70s. You can never rule out a brief shower or storm on hot summer days here, but the chance of any one front yard getting wet today and Friday is only 10-20%. We do note a few showers over the northwest corner of Alabama early this morning.

The number of showers and storms could increase a bit over the weekend thanks to a pocket of slightly colder air aloft, but the chance of any given location seeing rain is still fairly low, at 25-35%.

NEXT WEEK: The ridge rules. Highs hold in the mid to upper 90s through at least the first half of the week with only isolated afternoon storms. We continue to see evidence the ridge will weaken a bit toward the end of the week, with slightly lower heat levels and slightly higher coverage of scattered showers and storms.

TROPICS: A tropical wave is a few hundred miles southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands. Conditions are expected to be favorable for gradual development of this system later this week, and a tropical depression could form over the weekend or early next week while it moves westward to west-northwestward over the tropical Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center gives it a 40% chance of becoming a tropical depression or storm over the next seven days.

Still no systems are expected near the Gulf of Mexico or the U.S. through next week.ON THIS DATE IN 1819: A hurricane affected the coast from Louisiana to Alabama. New Orleans was on the fringe of the storm and suffered no severe damage. Ships at the Balize experienced a strong gale for 24 hours that grounded three ships. Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne rose 5 to 6 feet during the storm, with farms along the lakes flooded by the storm tide. Forty-one lives were lost on the U.S. Man of War schooner Firebrand, a 150-ton gunship.

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