Alabama’s drought has continued to worsen over the past few weeks, and the forecast for much of the state has been only dry, dry and more dry.

But there’s a chance that will change later this week, according to forecasts from the National Weather Service.

It won’t be a drought-busting type of rain, but anything is better than nothing at this point for Alabamians watching their landscaping wilt and farmers struggling to harvest crops and feed their livestock.

There’s only one good chance for rain in the next week, and it looks to arrive on Thursday night and last into Friday, according to the weather service.

Alabama is into what is typically its secondary severe weather season at this point, but no severe weather is expected this week. No thunder is expected, either.

But there are increasing chances for showers in the latest round of model forecasts, according to the weather service. And that goes for north Alabama all the way into south Alabama — two of the most parched areas according to last week’s U.S. Drought Monitor report.

There should be a disclaimer here: Forecasts can change, and rain chances could also dry up.

However, as of Sunday forecasters are expecting a cold front to move into the state on Thursday, which will increase chances for rain. Those increased rain chances could linger into Friday and even Friday afternoon in south Alabama.

No huge amounts of rain are expected. The seven-day precipitation outlook from NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center, shown at the top of this post, suggests that areas in northwest Alabama could get a half-inch to three-quarters of an inch of rain over the next week, with lesser amounts expected as you head south and east.

This week’s front could also be the beginning of a pattern change that could finally start to break Alabama’s dry spell.

The six- to 10-day precipitation outlook from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center shows increased probabilities of above-average rainfall for the state from Nov. 10-14:

The eight- to 14-day outlook also shows increased probabilities for above-average rainfall:

And the experimental three- to four-week outlook also has some good news: