CHARLESTON, S.C. – Just as a heat dome that kept the Southeast sweltering this week starts to break down, tropical downpours and thunderstorms will return to the region and bring with them a risk of flash flooding.

The eastern half of the U.S. has been gripped by a sprawling heat wave that kept millions of people in record-setting temperatures.

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However, a cold front that has moved out of Canada is bringing an end to the heat for some through the rest of this week and into the weekend.

That cold front will lose some of its punch as it arrives in the southern U.S. and begins to stall out, and that will serve as the catalyst for a storm system that will bring heavy rain to the region through the weekend.

Starting Friday, the abundance of tropical moisture will lead to several inches of rain in the Southeast.

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The heaviest rain and highest rain totals will likely fall from the Florida Panhandle to the Carolinas, putting cities like Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; and Wilmington, North Carolina, on alert for flooding.

NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center (WPC) has outlined a Level 2 out of 4 risk of flash flooding across the region on Friday and Saturday, and a Level 1 threat on Sunday.

There is a low chance that the storm system kicked up by the parked front could develop a tropical component, but that will not impact the forecast of heavy rain that is expected to fall on the region.

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“It’s a boundary over warm sea-surface temperatures,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Ian Oliver said. “If it hangs around too long, it’s going to have a chance at developing at least some tropical characteristics.”

Flooding driven by tropical downpours has been a common theme in the weather pattern for the Southeast over the past month. Chantal made landfall on the South Carolina coast in early July, and two other tropical disturbances have moved across the Southeast since then.