Our typical summer time pattern is now settling in for North Alabama.  We go through what's called a diurnal cycle.  Sun comes up and heats up North Alabama, destabilizing the atmosphere.  This instability brings the threat of pop-up showers and storms in the afternoon and evening.  Sun goes down and we cool off, losing instability.  Rinse and repeat nearly each day.  Of course coverage differs day to day based on changes in larger scale weather patterns: fronts, lows, highs and occasional tropical systems, etc..

As mentioned above, instability will be in place Wednesday for a few showers and storms to pop up in the afternoon and evening.  We placed today's chances at roughly 30%.  So not a wash out today but lightning and heavy rain is possible with any storm.  There is even an isolated storm chance overnight into Thursday morning. Highs reach the mid to upper 80s, but with the humidity, it'll feel as warm as the lower 90s.

Thursday brings about similar weather with an increase in storm chances and a slight decrease in temperatures. Any spots that see rain won't get quite as hot thanks to the cooling effects of an afternoon storm. Also Thursday, we're tracking some remnants from thunderstorms in the Midwest. Those storms can restrengthen over North Alabama, so we'll be watching for more widespread storms as a result.

Through Friday and into the weekend, expect the hot and muggy weather to continue, complete with afternoon storms. There are also eyes on the tropics, watching Tropical Storm Cristobal (pr. krees-TOH-bahl) in the Bay of Campeche. It will meander around the Bay for the next few days before finally turning northward into the Gulf of Mexico. The official National Hurricane Center track takes in toward coastal Louisiana for the time being, but Texas to the Florida Panhandle should be monitoring the forecast. We can even see some rain from the remnants of Cristobal once it moves inland early next week! There's still a lot of uncertainty in the forecast, but if you've got beach plans late this weekend or the first part of next week, you'll want to keep an ear out for changes to the forecast.