The barrage of showers and thunderstorms we've been seeing for the last couple of days seems likely to continue Monday and Tuesday. But forecasters at the National Weather Service expect the atmosphere will be drying out some, allowing the storms to diminish. Wednesday and Thursday should be mostly rain-free.

Blame a low-pressure system that moved slowly out of the Ohio Valley over the weekend. The counter-clockwise spin around the low picked up moisture from an unusually warm Atlantic Ocean and sent a plume of moisture-laden air north. There it ran up onto the mid-Atlantic states, dropping heavy rains that added up totals equal to a month or two of normal precipitation in some spots.

The storm center is moving up the East Coast today, but very slowly. That will leave us to deal with some additional showers and storms this afternoon, tonight and Tuesday. Flash flooding, such as that which submerged cars on Patapsco Avenue and flooded basements in Cherry Hill this morning, also remains a possibility. A Flash Flood Watch is in effect for Baltimore and its suburbs until 8 p.m. Monday. 

But drier air will continue to move our way, gradually easing us toward a sunny, dry day on Wednesday, and again of Thursday. By then, the high pressure that follows this stormy low, will have moved east, putting us once agaion in the return flow, forecasters said. Heat and humidity will rise again, and rain chances will be back for late Thursday, Friday and Saturday.