Rain dominates week's forecast

Here's some bad news for your weekend: The rain that pelted the area Wednesday and Thursday has a pretty good chance of sticking around this weekend.

And the news doesn't appear to be much better for the next week, forecasters said.

"We've got pretty good chances of rain for the next seven days," said David Gaffin, forecaster with the National Weather Service in Morristown, Tenn. "It's going to mainly be scattered, so not everyone is going to see rain every day, but over the next week, everyone is going to see rain at some point."

Pretty much the same forecast applies to North Georgia. There's a better than 70 percent chance of rain today and Sunday, and the forecast calls for a 30 percent to 40 percent chance of precipitation for the next seven days, said Laura Griffith, a forecaster with the Weather Service office in Peachtree City, Ga.

Though that reads like a spoiler alert for any outdoor plans, forecasters say there will be intermittent breaks, and the weather will stay warm. But, at times, the weather could get a little nasty, Mr. Gaffin said.

"So far, we've just had rain, and that's the forecast for this weekend, but looking into next week, there is a good chance for thunderstorms," he said.

Though Friday was mostly dry, rain from Wednesday and Thursday has left the ground saturated, and rivers, lakes and creek levels are all pretty high, he said. If rain plants itself over areas that flood easily, there's likely going to be some chance of isolated flooding, the forecaster said.

The Weather Service still has a flood watch in effect for most of Georgia.

All the wet weather is flowing off a low-pressure system in southern Mississippi that has stalled over the area. The system is funneling warm, wet air from the Gulf of Mexico up to the Tennessee Valley.

"It just doesn't seem to be moving for the next week," Ms. Griffith said. "We've kept rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future because of that."