BLUE SKY: We are enjoying sunshine in full supply across Alabama this afternoon with low humidity and temperatures in the 70s. Tonight will be clear with a low between 45 and 55 degrees for most places.

Tuesday will be another mostly sunny day with a high around 80 degrees.

WEDNESDAY: A disturbance loaded with tropical moisture, partly from Lidia (expected to be a hurricane when it moves into Mexico from the eastern Pacific Tuesday night), will bring a beneficial rain event to south Alabama. The most widespread and heaviest rain will be south of U.S. 80 (Demopolis to Montgomery to Opelika), where a total of 1-3 inches is likely. Models are trending northward with the extent of the rain, and it now looks like some rain could fall as far north as the Tennessee Valley. Rain amounts over north Alabama will be generally less than one-half inch.

Thursday will be dry with a partly sunny sky; the high will be in the 70s for most places.

FRIDAY AND THE WEEKEND: An approaching cold front will bring a chance of showers statewide Friday and Friday night. Unfortunately, it looks like rain amounts will be rather light and spotty with limited moisture available. The sky will clear Saturday morning, and Sunday will feature sunshine in fully supply. The high will be 70 to 75 degrees Saturday, dropping into the 60s Sunday.

NEXT WEEK: For now, most of the week looks dry with sunny, pleasant days and clear, cool nights; highs will be mostly in the 60s with lows in the 40s.TROPICS: Shower and thunderstorm activity has changed little in organization in association with a small area of low pressure over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. Environmental conditions appear only marginally favorable for some additional development while the system moves slowly northward before the low merges with a frontal system over the western Gulf of Mexico by midweek. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) gives the system a 20% chance of development.

A low-latitude tropical wave several hundred miles south-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands continues to produce a large area of showers and thunderstorms. This activity has become a bit more concentrated this afternoon, and environmental conditions appear conducive for additional development of this system during the next several days. A tropical depression is likely to form in the next couple of days while it moves west-northwestward or northwestward across the eastern tropical Atlantic. This feature will likely turn northward and will be no threat to the Lesser Antilles or the U.S. The NHC gives it an 80% chance of development.DROUGHT MONITOR: Parts of southwest Alabama are in an extreme drought; a severe drought covers much of north, west and south Alabama. Conditions are not as bad over the eastern counties but are abnormally dry.

The Alabama Forestry Commission maintains a fire alert for the entire state. Permits for outdoor burning will no longer be issued until further notice. Anyone burning a field, grassland or woodland without a burn permit may be subject to prosecution for committing a Class B misdemeanor.

ON THIS DATE IN 1804: The famous Snow Hurricane moved ashore near Atlantic City. After briefly passing through Connecticut and into Massachusetts, cold air was entrained in the circulation with heavy snow falling between New York and southern Canada. Berkshires, Massachusetts, and Concord, New Hampshire, recorded 2 feet of snow. This storm produced the first observation of snow from a hurricane, but not the last. Hurricane Ginny of 1963 brought up to 18 inches of snow to portions of Maine.

ON THIS DATE IN 2001: An unusually strong fall outbreak of tornadoes spawned at least 23 twisters across parts of Nebraska and Oklahoma. Hardest hit was the town of Cordell, Oklahoma, but a 22-minute lead time led to an amazingly low casualty count: only nine injuries and no fatalities.

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