James Spann forecasts a dry weekend for Alabama from Alabama News Center on Vimeo.

RADAR CHECK: A band of showers is moving through parts of east and southeast Alabama early this morning; that rain will push out of the state soon, and we expect a clearing sky today with a high in the 60s.

The dry air stays in place over the weekend; look for a good supply of sunshine Saturday and Sunday with highs holding generally in the 60s, although south Alabama will likely see low 70s by Sunday afternoon.

NEXT WEEK: We are forecasting the warmest weather so far this year during the first half of the week, with highs well up in the 70s. Some spots across south Alabama might even touch the 80-degree mark Tuesday. The weather likely will stay dry Monday and Tuesday; then we will bring in a chance of showers on Wednesday ahead of a cold front. Some thunder is possible, but at this time global models suggest no organized severe weather threat for the Deep South. The Storm Prediction Center is maintaining a risk of severe storms for parts of Alabama Wednesday, but at this point that scenario has no support from new model data with limited upper-air support and very little surface-based instability.

There is a decent chance the front on Wednesday becomes stationary across the southern U.S., which will prolong some risk of rain into Thursday and Friday. Cooler air creeps into the northern two-thirds of Alabama on these days, with highs in the upper 50s Thursday.

ON THIS DATE IN 1975: An F4 tornado tore through the southern and eastern part of Tuscaloosa. It first touched down in the Taylorville community that Sunday afternoon, then skipped northeastward before hitting the Skyland Park area and moving on to the McFarland Boulevard exit area of I-59/20. It went on into parts of Alberta City and Holt. The official path length was 14.4 miles. Along it, 289 homes were destroyed or heavily damaged, along with 20 businesses and 21 mobile homes.

The tornado nearly destroyed the new Scottish Inn motel on I-59 at McFarland. A 23-year-old housekeeper named Thelma Hill was killed when most of the second floor of the motel was sheared away by the tornado, causing a wall to fall on her.

Four other tornadoes touched down across the state, affecting parts of Walker, Cullman and Calhoun counties.

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