Wet weekend ... but how wet?

Hopefully, you've buried any plans for summer-type outdoor activities this weekend.  That ship has sailed.

Rain and chilly weather is certainly in our future the next few days, but there's a question about exactly how much rain is coming?

That's a sensitive topic in this part of the world, given our flooding episodes of June 28, June 30, July 11, and July 27.  And there's a chance that some heavy rain could fall again this weekend in the Carolinas, although the betting right now is on the eastern part of the two states.

The culprit will be a tropical system in the Gulf of Mexico.

The National Hurricane Center expects the low pressure system to move west-northwest, from its current position near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula toward the Mexico-Texas border on the other side of the Gulf. But many forecasters also expect a lot of the system's moisture to be transported northeast, across the Florida Gulf Coast and into Georgia and the Carolinas.

This would happen Saturday, most likely, although it could continue into Sunday.

Justin Roberti of Accu-Weather says the highest chance of flash flooding this weekend in the Carolinas will be in the central and eastern parts, but the corridor drawn on an Accu-Weather map supplied to the media extends westward into Charlotte's eastern suburbs.  We're talking about Union, Anson, Stanly and Lancaster (S.C.) counties, and possibly into eastern Mecklenburg.  That's mighty close.

Bottom line ... be prepared to get quite wet this weekend.