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The atmosphere may be ready to engage in some regressive behavior, with August-like downpours<\/a> in the weekend outlooks.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t be surprised to see the National Weather Service post flash-flood watches on Saturday, with heavy showers possible at night and into early Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have plenty of moisture coming up front the south,\u201d said Frank Pereira, meteorologist with the federal Weather Prediction Center, in College Park, Md.<\/p>\n The center has the I-95<\/a> urban corridor from central Virginia through Philadelphia with an enhanced probability of \u201cexcessive rainfall.\u201d<\/p>\n Widespread heavy rain amounts aren\u2019t likely, said Pereira, but hefty totals could occur in a short period of time.<\/p>\n The weather service office in Mount Holly said rainfall rates of two inches an hour would be possible. <\/p>\n Fortunately, after a week\u2019s respite from the episodic rains that so characterized July and August,<\/a> setting off record numbers of flood warnings, the weather service notes that levels are low in the region\u2019s major waterways.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: The Philly region has been a national hot spot this year \u2014 for flood warnings<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe bigger concern with this event will be flash flooding,\u201d the weather service said, the familiar likes of flooding along roads and near the smaller streams.<\/p>\n While the downpours may evoke August, these would be a shade different in that they wouldn\u2019t be driven by daytime heating, said Paul Fitzsimmons, meteorologist in the Mount Holly office. The sun is getting weaker, the days shorter.<\/p>\n Setting off the rains would be an approaching cold front from the west and a warm front migrating northward.<\/p>\n The rains could get an extra kick from very warm decks of clouds about two miles above the surface, said Pereira. <\/p>\n \u201cYou have this very deep saturated warm layer,\u201d he said. \u201cThis increases the efficiency of the rainfall,\u201d along with producing larger raindrops.<\/p>\n In any event, Saturday should be dry during the day, as should most of the day Sunday. And further on the plus side, the drought conditions continue to recede.<\/p>\n Is the drought officially, absolutely over in the Philly region?<\/p>\n All of New Jersey remains under a state-declared drought warning<\/a>; however, conditions throughout the Philadelphia region have improved immensely.<\/p>\n After 16 consecutive months of below-normal precipitation in Philadelphia heading into July, the totals at Philadelphia International Airport<\/a> are above normal for the year.<\/p>\n In the latest interagency U.S. Drought Monitor update posted Thursday, most of the region was categorized as absolutely drought-free, a big change from just last week.<\/p>\n All of Philly was drought-free. Last week, the entire city designated as \u201cabnormally dry\u201d \u2014 the least-serious tier on the monitor\u2019s scale. <\/p>\n