In the wake of Alberto, tropical moisture will remain and an elevated risk of flash flooding will continue over the southeastern United States through Thursday night.

A plume of moisture originating from the Caribbean Sea will fuel drenching showers and thunderstorms from Florida to the Carolinas, southern Virginia and Tennessee prior to the end of the week.

Through Thursday night, an additional inch of rain is likely over much of the region. However, where downpours persist, 2-4 inches of rain may fall.

Motorists should be on the lookout for flooded streets and highways.

Never attempt to drive through flooded roads as the water may be much deeper than it appears and the road surface may have been washed away. Driving through flooded areas puts not only you and your occupants but also first responders at risk.

Portions of the Southeast have received two to five times their normal rainfall for May. Asheville, North Carolina, has received a whopping 14.42 inches of rain since May 5. Close to 13 inches of rain has drenched Miami with more than 14 inches of rain swamping Key West, Florida.

Any additional rainfall beyond a light pace can quickly lead to flooding, mudslides and fallen trees in the region.

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Flash flooding occurred just west of Charlottesville, Virginia, during Wednesday night. Three people are missing following the torrential rain. From 8 to 12 inches of rain has fallen on the area during May.

On Wednesday evening, a mudslide collapsed a home in Boone, North Carolina. One fatality was reported and another person remains missing.

Torrential downpours caused flooding of streets and basements in central Alabama on Wednesday.

Heavy rainfall and a landslide in the McDowell County, North Carolina, resulted in a scare for people living below the Lake Tahoma Dam for a time on Wednesday. Officials investigating the scene later determined that the situation was no longer critical.

The saturated state of the ground in the region has made many trees in the area top heavy and unstable. On Monday, a large tree fell on a vehicle and resulted in the fatalities of two WYFF-TV journalists in the Tryon, North Carolina, area.

On Sunday morning, torrential rainfall caused dramatic flash flooding in Ellicott City, Maryland, that led to the fatality of a National Guardsman attempting a swift water rescue.

Flooding downpour risk to ease with caveat Friday, this weekend

There is some good news in the forecast as the concentration of tropical moisture in the region should diminish this weekend. Showers and thunderstorms are likely to become much more isolated in nature.

However, even with the reduced coverage of downpours, there will still be some risk of sporadic flash flooding and fallen trees as the ground will take several days to dry out. Any locally gusty shower or thunderstorm can knock over trees without notice in the coming days.

Where thunderstorms gather and strengthen near the airport hubs, airline delays are likely.

A non-tropical storm is forecast to develop along the mid-Atlantic coast this weekend. This may cause another uptick in rainfall from eastern Virginia to coastal Georgia depending on how far west and south the storm drifts.

It may not be until early next week when this storm moves farther offshore and allows much lower humidity levels to settle in and bring an end to the frequent downpours over the mainland part of the Southeast.

Spotty storms may continue to riddle the Florida Peninsula through next week.

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