Prepare for a wet three-day weekend as the potential for a named storm grows.

This afternoon, there is a 50-percent chance of thunderstorms in the area, which could dampen the Fossil Festival in Aurora and the Bathfest/First Port Celebration events, not to mention other activities planned for the Memorial Day Weekend.

A tropical disturbance, about 450 miles southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, on Friday afternoon, is expected to bring thunderstorms, strong winds and periods of significant rainfall through Monday, according to the National Weather Service. The chance of the disturbance becoming a tropical storm, which would be named Bonnie, during the weekend is greater than 90 percent, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Beaufort County emergency-response personnel are on alert, prepared to respond to hazardous weather in the area, if it occurs.

“After talking with the NWS in Morehead they explained that this storm may not come ashore and work its way up the coast very slowly affecting our weather through Wednesday of next week,” wrote John Pack, Beaufort County’s emergency-management coordinator, in a email distributed Friday. “The current models show the storm becoming tropical prior to coming ashore, if it comes ashore.”

Forecasters with the NWS office in Morehead City predict rain, heavy at times, will occur mostly Sunday and Monday. Heavy rainfall could result in minor flooding in coastal areas and low-lying areas inland, according to NWS forecasters.

On Friday, the county’s command/coordination trailer was set up in Bath to support a combined incident command for fire and EMS response as a result of the events in Aurora and Bath taking place today, according to Pack. “There are not many times when we have major events occurring in Beaufort County at the same time on opposite sides of the river,” Pack wrote.

In Washington, city officials are keeping an eye on the weather, but have not implemented any storm preparations. “We’re just taking it one day at a time,” City Manager Bobby Roberson said Friday afternoon.

The weekend is shaping up to be warm and humid, with highs in the 80s, according to NWS forecasters.

On Friday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called for a near-normal hurricane season with 10 to 16 named storms, with four to eight hurricanes and one to four “major” ones with winds reaching 111 mph and up, according to The Associated Press.

The long-term season averages are 12 named storms, with six hurricanes and three major ones.

The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins Wednesday, but tropical weather got a head start this year: Hurricane Alex made an unseasonable debut in January over the far eastern Atlantic.

“Environmental conditions are favorable for this system to become a tropical cyclone … Saturday while it moves west-northwestward toward the southeastern United States coast. Interests from Georgia through North Carolina should monitor the progress of this low,” warned the National Hurricane Center on Friday.