There is a 70 percent chance of the system becoming a tropical storm within the next 48 hours, the National Hurricane Center said.

Tropical storm warnings have been issued from Edisto Beach, South Carolina northward to Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina. The disturbance is being called Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight, a designation used by the National Hurricane Center to denote a storm that has not yet formed but is expected to soon and will bring impacts within the 48-hour window that requires alerts to be issued.

A severe storm system that's taking aim at the Mid-Atlantic has flooded the Carolinas with "historic" rains, inundating homes, stranding vehicles and prompting water rescues. The big picture: Flash flood and tropical storm warnings were in effect for portions of North and South Carolina Monday into Tuesday due to the unnamed system that the National Hurricane Center referred to as Potential Tropical Cyclone 8,