AS NICE AS IT GETS: The sky is mostly sunny across Alabama this afternoon; temperatures are in the 80s, and the humidity is low for August. Tonight will be clear with a low mostly in the 60s; again, there is some potential for upper 50s in cooler pockets across the northern counties.

THURSDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND: Look for a high between 87 and 92 degrees Thursday with a sunny sky. The weather will be dry for most of the state Friday through the weekend with rising heat levels; highs will be in the mid 90s with mostly sunny days and fair nights. A few isolated storms could show up Saturday and Sunday over the southern quarter of Alabama, but even there most places will stay dry.

NEXT WEEK: Quiet weather continues with mostly sunny days; afternoon storms will be very hard to find. Highs will be generally in the 90s.

TROPICS: A broad area of low pressure could form in the central or western Gulf of Mexico by the beginning of next week. Some slow development of this system is possible thereafter as it moves westward and approaches the western Gulf of Mexico coastline by the middle of next week. For now, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) gives this feature only a 20% chance of development; if anything by chance gets organized here, it will be well to the south of Alabama. Hopefully this will bring some rain to parched cities like Houston at some point next week.

The NHC is also monitoring two tropical waves in the central and eastern Atlantic; they have a 40-50% chance of development over the next seven days and will be far from land for a while.

In the eastern Pacific, Tropical Storm Hilary is expected to become a major hurricane by Friday night. Then it weakens rapidly, but moisture will spread up into the southwest U.S.

ON THIS DATE IN 1992: One of the most destructive United States hurricanes of record started modestly as a tropical wave that emerged from the west coast of Africa on Aug. 14. The wave spawned a tropical depression on Aug. 16, which became Tropical Storm Andrew the next day.

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