Tropical system threatens Gulf Coast with heavy rain and flooding; New Orleans braces for up to a foot of rainfall this week. Follow Newsweek's live blog.

The good news is a marked decrease in intensity of the thunderstorms in the past two hours. As of 7:30 p.m. there is only one isolated severe thunderstorm warning in effect over the entire Great Lakes region. The National Weather Service has watched this decline and cancelled the severe thunderstorm watch in effect for this evening.

I feel like there’s been more of a focus on storms than heat. That is going to briefly change today. However, we’ll go back to a storm focus later tomorrow.

A flood watch has been issued for most of the area, excluding the Jersey Shore counties, from 3 p.m. today until 3 a.m. Thursday.

Parts of Somerset and Middlesex experienced severe flooding during Monday’s storms, necessitating dozens of water rescues in several towns. High temperatures on Wednesday will climb into the upper 80s to low 90s with a heat index in the low to mid 90s.

On Friday, waves from the southwest will bring isolated to scattered showers with a 20-40% chance of thunderstorms in the mountains by the afternoon, moving north and east as the day goes on. Temperatures are expected to move into the 80s.

Clouds build Friday afternoon with perhaps a bigger surge of moisture. This time the showers and storms will move from southwest to northeast, beginning in east Alabama around late morning or midday and continuing through the afternoon. Rain coverage is forecast to be closer to 50%. Highs back into the 90s for pretty much everyone.

As mentioned yesterday, we’re watching two rounds of showers and storms.