Downpours that hammered Lawrence at midday Tuesday were accompanied by lightning that knocked a radio station off the air and grounded an emergency helicopter.

The storms moved out of the Lawrence area by late afternoon. Skies should clear by this afternoon and temperatures will be in the upper 70s, forecasters said. Thursday and the rest of the week should be sunny and clear with temperatures in the 80s.

The first storm moved through the area shortly before 10 a.m. Tuesday, bringing a brief period of heavy rain. During that storm, lightning burned out a component in a broadcast control board at KJHK, Kansas University’s student radio station, said student station manager Bill Colburn.

A new part has been ordered, and the station hoped to be back on the air by noon today, he said.

“That’s being very optimistic,” Colburn said. “Once we get everything back up, then we can tell if anything else was knocked out.”

Colburn said he didn’t think the station was hit by lightning, but that lightning can create an atmospheric fluctuation that can cause an electronic component to burn out.

About 4 p.m., bad weather kept a Life Star air ambulance helicopter from responding to a traffic accident on Kansas Highway 10 just east of Lawrence. A Life Star spokesman said its only helicopter was at Forbes Field in Topeka at the time and unable to take off because of the weather there.

A Kansas Highway Patrol report said David Sidor, 46, Lawrence, was driving his Chevrolet Suburban westbound on K-10, when Karen Lamke, 44, Lawrence, began turning west onto K-10 from East 1750 Road. Sidor’s vehicle struck Lamke’s 1996 Ford vehicle in the right acceleration lane. Sidor’s vehicle stopped in the north ditch, and Lamke’s vehicle stopped in the highway’s median. Both were transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, treated and then released.

Heavy rain fell shortly after noon, overflowing curbside drains along many Lawrence streets, but no serious flooding was reported to Douglas County Emergency Management, officials said.

Despite the downpours, by 4 p.m. the rainfall total for Lawrence for the day was little more than half an inch  officially 0.65 inches, said 6News meteorologist Ross Janssen.

By 9 p.m., Journal-World Weather Watchers reported 0.70 inches in Eudora and 0.56 inches in Baldwin.

By evening, most of the heavy rain had moved south of Lawrence.