A tropical system and the heavy rains accompanying it could lead to flash flooding across Florida and other parts of the coastal Southeast this weekend.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said there is a 60% chance that the system will organize into a tropical depression in the next few days somewhere off the coast of Florida, Georgia or the Carolinas.

As of Thursday morning, forecasters said the system was not likely to grow strong enough to become a tropical storm. If it did, it would become Tropical Storm Chantal, the third named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Regardless of whether that happens, parts of Florida should expect to see prolonged rainy conditions, according to the forecasters at the Tampa Bay office of the National Weather Service. The rain began Wednesday and is expected to last through the weekend, with totals most likely reaching 3 to 5 inches across the central west coast of the Florida Peninsula by the time it ends.

It was still uncertain how much rain might fall on the east coast of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

— The New York Times