It’s a wet and sometimes wild Thursday for Valley weather

The slow moving thunderstorm that dumped 0.31 of an inch of rain in Hanford on Thursday broke a daily record set back in 1999.

Meteorologists weren’t ruling out a slight chance of another downpour before sunset. But the focus of the storm has shifted to the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada, said meteorologist Kevin Durfee with the National Weather Service in Hanford.

Thunderstorms that moved into the area overnight dropped measurable rain on communities in the South Valley. Lightning from the storm caused some damage when it hit a tree in the city of Hanford, lighting it on fire, knocking out windows in a nearby house and tearing up the concrete around it, Durfee said.

The wet weather will remain in the mountains on Friday. “We’re going to have dry weather for the second half of the weekend and we expect it to remain dry” through next Thursday, Durfee said.

Temperatures will remain low too. The storm brought cool ocean air. At 2 p.m. Thursday, the temperature in Fresno was 78 degrees. The normal average this time of year is the upper 90s.

“That’s the coolest 2 p.m temperature in quite a long time,” Durfee said. “It’s really nice.”

Triple digit temperatures could return by next week.

Earlier Thursday, there were reports of brief, heavy rain, especially in the southern part of the central San Joaquin Valley. In the Sierra, snow fell along Tioga Pass. The possibility of thunderstorms will continue in the higher elevations of the southern Sierra through Friday.

In the event of a thunderstorm, the National Weather Service advises residents to stay inside.

This story was originally published July 9, 2015 at 8:45 AM with the headline "It’s a wet and sometimes wild Thursday for Valley weather."