(KRON) — Hurricane Kay has been downgraded to Tropical Storm Kay and it may bring rain to the southernmost part of California this weekend. While the storm is expected to turn slightly west and possibly further out into the Pacific, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the outer bands of the storm could bring heavy rain — and potential flash flooding — to parts of SoCal on Saturday.

“Once Hurricane, now Tropical Storm Kay is bringing rain to southern California today along with flooding concerns to the mountainous areas east of Los Angeles and San Diego,” said KRON4 Meteorologist, Kyla Grogan.

Will Tropical Storm Kay bring rain to the Bay Area?

As to the chances of the storm bringing rain to the Bay Area, Grogan was less certain.

“As we move into the weekend the Bay Area will start to see clouds from Tropical Storm Kay make their way towards us and will likely notice a slight uptick in humidity levels,” said Grogan. “As for rain, there is a slight chance that we’ll see a few sprinkles, but models are not showing much in the way of rain totals, higher amounts will likely be confined to Southern California and the Central Coast.” 

But while Kay may not bring rain to the Bay, it could bring wind flow that might help clear our air of wildfire smoke.

“One bonus of Kay moving up the coast is that it will bring southerly wind flow with it and that has the potential to knock some of the hazy smoke out of the way and help our air quality improve,” said Grogan. “I should add that at the moment, much of the smoke we’re seeing in our skies is not thankfully mixing down to the surface so that is what is helping our air quality stay in the good to moderate range and not deteriorate further.”

The Bay Area is currently under an air quality advisory for Friday and Saturday due to wildfire smoke. 

While Tropical Storm Kay may not bring rains to the drought-parched Bay Area, it may help bring some relief as we come out of the historic, unprecedented heat wave that’s brought record temps to the region this week.

“The haze will continue into Saturday but as Tropical Storm Kay’s remnants approach we should get some relief,” said Grogan. “Other than that, the big story is that temps continue to retreat this weekend allowing our inland communities to get the heat break they so richly deserve!”

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.