Drenching downpours will continue in much of, but not all of southeastern US

Downpours will continue to pester and drench a large part of the southeastern United States into early next week, but some areas will get a break for a coupe of days from the rain and high humidity.

As the intensity of showers and thunderstorms decrease from portions of Texas to Georgia and Florida into next week, localized flooding problems will continue where downpours repeat. However, AccuWeather meteorologists say part of the Southeast will get a break from the rain and sticky conditions in time for the weekend.

"A wedge of dry air is forecast to push southward from Virginia to much of North Carolina and at least part of South Carolina this weekend," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said, "The combination of high pressure over the Great Lakes and a developing storm off the Atlantic coast will help to pull the dry air in."

Many people in Virginia and the Carolinas will notice a drop in humidity levels as the weekend progresses. That will be enough to allow temperatures to drop lower than recent nights, making for cool starts to the day before the late July sun warms the air.

The push of dry air will run out of momentum over the southern Appalachians and across Georgia. Humidity levels in these areas may only dip slightly. Because of this, the risk of at least spotty showers and thunderstorms will continue through the weekend.

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Farther to the south and west, the moist zone, strewn with multiple showers and thunderstorms, will hold on from northern Florida and southern and western Georgia westward to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and northeast and coastal southern Texas.

The most active area of downpours will likely continue where it has been for much of this week: From southeastern Texas to western and central Louisiana. Due to the heavy rain that has fallen so far and saturated the ground, these areas will be the most prone to flash flooding and flooding along some of the rivers.

Rainfall along the immediate coast, including the barrier islands of Texas, has approached 1 foot in some locations this week. Just inland, rainfall has ranged from 1 to 6 inches from Texas to southwestern Louisiana. An additional 1-3 inches of rain will fall through Sunday, with locally higher amounts.

Any of the showers and thunderstorms in the Southeast states will bring the risk of brief urban flooding due to the state of the moisture in the atmosphere.

Experts urge motorists never to drive through flooded roads, as the water may still be rising, and the road beneath it may have been washed away. The flow of water may push or submerge your vehicle. Not only may the vehicle be permanently damaged, but the risk to lives may extend to potential rescuers.

Early next week, the weather pattern will shift and downpours will return to some locations and may end in others.

"As a dome of heat builds over the Plains, the flow from the Gulf of Mexico will gradually turn off in the South Central states," Buckingham said. "But the active zone of showers and thunderstorms will shift farther to the east so that the dry wedge erodes quickly over the Carolinas and the zone from the northeast Gulf coast to the southern Atlantic coast, and the Appalachians will be back in the downpours. Drier weather will finally arrive in rain-soaked southeastern Texas."

As large complexes of thunderstorms dive southeastward for hundreds of miles from the northern Plains to the mid-Mississippi Valley, some may survive into the lower Mississippi Valley and areas farther to the south and east.

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