MOULTRIE, Ga. — Over the last 24 hours the first named tropical system of the year seems likely to take a more westerly course than predicted on Thursday — one that would make it miss south Georgia.

The National Weather Service’s latest track puts Subtropical Storm Alberto on a path toward the Alabama-Mississippi line and making landfall Monday. The cone showing the possible site of the storm’s landfall stretched from New Orleans to Panama City, Fla., as of Friday afternoon.

If Alberto sticks to that path, it will reduce the amount of rainfall expected in the Colquitt County area.

“It looks like it’s going to go toward Mississippi,” said Russell Moody, Colquitt County emergency management director, after a Friday afternoon conference call with state weather and emergency officials. “I think our (predicted) rain has come down some.”

As Floridians and Georgians learned last year, storms don’t always follow the script, so they will be keeping an eye on the weather conditions.

“We’re still watching,” Moody said. “It’s still early.”

The Weather Service’s Tallahassee office still projects thunderstorms Friday night, with a chance of thunderstorms throughout Saturday. Showers are likely Sunday through Memorial Day and into Tuesday.

Recent rainfall in the area has improved water levels significantly, especially in Southwest Georgia. Colquitt County moved from a drought designation to abnormally dry.

After a 17-day period with no rainfall, the University of Georgia’s weather station at Spence Field measured precipitation for 10 of 11 days through Thursday, with rainfall of half an inch or greater on four of those days.

On May 15 about 24 percent of the state was abnormally dry, nearly 25 percent in moderate drought and 5.3 percent in severe drought, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

On Tuesday the percentage of Georgia with no water deficit had increased from 40.3 percent a week earlier to 66.63 percent. And at that time 33.37 percent of the state was abnormally dry but none was categorized as being in drought.

A few more days of rain will help improve conditions in much of the state that is running a rainfall deficit.

Alberto could bring rainfall up to 20 inches in some places, according to AccuWeather hurricane specialist Dan Kottlowski, and it will drop precipitation for several days after making landfall. The storm will strengthen as it moves up the Gulf of Mexico.

“We cannot rule out the possibility of this system becoming a hurricane before it makes landfall sometime on Monday or Monday evening,” he said Friday afternoon.