COLUMBIA--Tropical Storm Cindy has been downgraded to a tropical depression, but heavy rainfall and flooding still are possible in South Carolina's Upstate, forecasters said.

Remnants of the weakening storm are forecast to move close enough to South Carolina today to bring the possibility of heavy rain and even a few tornadoes.

Cindy would be the first tropical system to affect the state in 2005. Last year, South Carolina was hit or brushed by seven tropical systems causing at least $146 million in damage and cleanup costs and sparking a record 84 tornadoes.

Cindy was about 80 miles west-southwest of Atlanta at 11 p.m. Wednesday and moving northeast at 15 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm dropped 5 inches of rain on Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in just a few hours Wednesday evening.

Forecasters predict the remnants of Cindy will move roughly along Interstate 85 this afternoon and evening, leaving most of South Carolina in the right front part of the storm, where the worst weather often occurs.

Current forecasts call for up to 5 inches of rain. Flood watches have been issued in parts of the Upstate and Atlanta.

"People in South Carolina should pay close attention to Cindy simply because of the rainfall. It can produce significant rainfall and we're already saturated," state climatologist Hope Mizzell said.

Parts of the Upstate have received nearly 11 inches of rain in the past five weeks. If Cindy's path shifts just a little farther north and west, the mountains could shield a good part of the state from the heavy rain, forecasters said.

Farther out in the Atlantic, Hurricane Dennis was moving through the Caribbean and was forecast to enter the Gulf of Mexico by the weekend.

Meteorologists said it is too early to tell if it will affect South Carolina.

Before the hurricane season started, experts said 2005 could be another busy year.

And after Dennis formed Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said it was the earliest on record four named storms have formed in the Atlantic.

Last year, for the first time in more than a century, the centers of four tropical systems moved across South Carolina. It was also the first time in almost a half-century that two hurricanes -- Charley and Gaston -- made landfall on the state's coast in the same season.