A loud crack of thunder, a bright flash of lightning, dark clouds and pouring rain came to Ames with a weekend storm that brought almost 5 inches of rain.

But the storm didn’t stop students from enjoying the weekend with football games, Frisbee and other activities. Allison Haug, sophomore in exercise and sport science, said a little mud added to her weekend fun.

“I liked the rain this weekend,” she said. “I got to play in the mud, meet some of my neighbors and have some fun.”

The rain brought relief to Iowa after a summer drought, said Jeff Wallenfang, meteorologist with the National Weather Service branch in Des Moines.

“Without a doubt, this weather helped,” Wallenfang said. “We had really fallen behind during the summer months, and now we’re only running an inch and a half below normal for the year. This was by far the most significant addition since spring, and it really made up for most of the summer deficit.”

The active period of weather dumped 2.13 inches of rain on Ames Thursday, 2.7 inches Friday and 0.1 inches on both Saturday and Sunday.

Story County had four thunderstorm warnings Thursday and Friday. Numerous reports of house, tree and crop damage from 60 to 70 mph winds and lightning strikes were reported across the state, Wallenfang said.

“Normally, these storms aren’t so long in duration and aren’t so spread out,” he said. “After this started on Thursday, it seemed like it never wanted to end. There’s usually small clusters of activity, but this was widespread and sporadic throughout the entire state.”