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The rain that poured over Smith County on Thursday morning was much-needed, but officials said it was not nearly enough to lift the current burn ban.

The county, which is experiencing one of its driest summers in recent years, prompted the Smith County Commissioners to issue a burn ban on July 5.

The ban will last 90 days, unless authorities find reason to lift it, and prohibits any outdoor activity that involves fire. The county has issued at least one citation to a property owner after he burned four piles of brush which spread and got out of control earlier this week.

Chad Hogue, assistant fire marshal, said even though the rain was refreshing, it is still not enough to consider shortening or lifting the county’s burn ban.

“The rain definitely put some moisture back in the soil, but we need more of it,” Hogue said. “Our fire weather prediction doesn’t indicate that we will have more significant amounts of rain, so it’s not worth it to take it off for a day or two.”

He urged the public to keep following the burn ban guidelines as they remain in effect.

“Even after the rain, it is still unsafe to burn things outdoors,” he said. “As soon as it is safe for the public, we will get rid of the burn ban.”

The total amount of rain in Tyler as of 3:30 p.m. Thursday was 0.64 inches, according to Davyoen Hill, meteorologist for the National Weather Service of Shreveport.

Hill said the rain originated from heavy winds near Southwest Arkansas and Northwest Louisiana. The winds came to East Texas along with rain that caused some debris and road issues and outages across Tyler.

There was no major damage reported in the city, but at least one tree fell across a road downing power lines in the area of South Broadway Avenue and Rusk Street. Some intersections also lost power which was later restored.

ONCOR had restored power to thousands of Smith County homes by 6 p.m. Thursday, but there were still at least 2,500 homes without power at that time.

Hogue said the fire marshal’s office assisted clearing downed power lines and trees near the Chapel Hill area.

Marty Mayeaux, lead forecaster for the NWS Shreveport, said scattered showers and thunderstorms in Tyler and surrounding areas could return before Friday afternoon. He also said Thursday’s rain will keep the temperature a bit lower for the next few days, after experiencing multiple triple-digit days in a row.

Dry weather will return during the weekend with temperatures in the 90s, Mayeaux said.