James Spann forecasts another hot summer day for Alabama from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

ANOTHER HOT, HUMID SUMMER DAY AHEAD: With a good supply of sunshine today, we project a high between 91 and 95 degrees for most places this afternoon. A few showers or storms could form during the heat of the day, but they should be widely separated.

FRIDAY AND THE WEEKEND: A weak surface front will sag southward through Tennessee, and we expect to see an increase in the number of scattered showers and storms Friday afternoon over the northern quarter of the state, where the Storm Prediction Center maintains a marginal risk (level 1 out of 5) of severe thunderstorms.The main threat from heavier storms will come from strong straight-line winds. Heavy rain is likely in spots as well. For the southern three-quarters of the state, it will be another hot, humid day with widely scattered afternoon showers or thunderstorms.

For the weekend, we expect a mix of sun and clouds over the northern half of the state with scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms both days. The best chance of getting wet will come from about noon to midnight both days, and odds of any one spot seeing rain are 50-60%. Highs will be between 88 and 92 degrees; south Alabama will be drier and hotter, with highs in the low to mid 90s.

NEXT WEEK: For now it looks like routine early August weather, with partly sunny, hot, humid days and the chance of scattered, mostly afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms. Highs will be generally between 90 and 94 degrees.TROPICS: It has now been 26 days since we had a named tropical system in the Atlantic basin; that was Colin, a weak, short-lived tropical storm along the South Atlantic coast of the U.S. All remains very quiet today and tropical storm formation is not expected through at least the next five days.

ON THIS DATE IN 1898: A severe thunderstorm produced considerable hail (some stones to 11 ounces) in the Chicago business district. Some people were hurt, not by hail, but by several hundred runaway horses spooked by the hailstones.

ON THIS DATE IN 1976: At 3:42 a.m., an earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitudes on the Richter scale flattened Tangshan, a Chinese industrial city with a population of about 1 million people. An estimated 242,000 people in Tangshan and surrounding areas were killed, making the earthquake one of the deadliest in recorded history, surpassed only by the 300,000 who died in the Calcutta earthquake in 1737 and the 830,000 thought to have perished in China’s Shaanxi province in 1556.

BEACH FORECAST: Click here to see the AlabamaWx Beach Forecast Center page.

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