RADAR CHECK: The line of showers along the cold front moving through Alabama at mid-afternoon runs from near Thomasville to Prattville to Lafayette. Behind the front, temperatures are in the 50s, while low 80s are reported across the southeast corner of Alabama. The front will continue to move southward this afternoon, and all of the Deep South will be in the colder air tonight. Lows will be mostly in the 30s early Thursday morning.

THURSDAY/FRIDAY: Thursday will be cool and dry, with a partly sunny sky and a high in the 50s. Clouds return Thursday night, and a disturbance will bring periods of rain on Friday. The weather stays cool, with temperatures holding in the 50s during the day Friday.

THE ALABAMA WEEKEND: Expect a warming trend over the weekend; highs will be between 67 and 72 degrees Saturday and in the 70s statewide Sunday. It now looks like a decent part of the state will be dry Saturday with only isolated showers; the best chance of seeing some rain will be near the Gulf Coast. On Sunday, we will mention a chance of scattered showers statewide, but nothing heavy or widespread.

NEXT WEEK: Occasional showers and a thunderstorm or two are likely Monday with the approach of a cold front. The front will likely stall out somewhere across Alabama, keeping a chance of rain in the forecast basically daily through Friday. It certainly won’t rain all day every day, but the week looks fairly wet and unsettled. Highs through the week will be mostly in the upper 60s and low 70s.ON THIS DATE IN 1962: Wilmington, North Carolina, reached a high temperature of 85 degrees. This is the warmest temperature on record during February.

ON THIS DATE IN 2007: A severe storm blew into France, Portugal and Spain, smashing sea walls, destroying homes, polluting farmland with salt water and devastating the Atlantic coast’s oyster farms. Winds reached about 125 mph on the summits of the Pyrenees and up to nearly 100 mph along the Atlantic Coast. Wind speeds of 106 mph were measured atop the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

ON THIS DATE IN 2011: Five short-lived tornadoes touched down across Alabama, including an EF-1 near Tyson in Lowndes County, just west of I-65.

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