A line of thunderstorms was rumbling through the Lawrence area tonight, bringing crackling lightning strikes, heavy rain and widespread flooding. Douglas County was under a severe thunderstorm warning tonight through 9:15 p.m. and a flash flood warning was extended through 2 a.m. Saturday.

The heavy rain was pushing out of Lawrence by 11 p.m., said Matt Sayers, 6News meteorologist. Sayers said there was close to 3 inches from tonight’s storm recorded by 10:30 p.m. at the 6News studios in downtown Lawrence at Seventh and New Hampshire streets.

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Two hundred Westar Energy customers were also without electric power at 10 p.m. in the Lawrence area, a utility spokesman said. There was no word exactly where that outage occurred in the city.

The heavy rainfall was catching some motorist off guard.

“We do have reports of several stalled cars around town. We just advise that you not go out and drive around at night. People are getting stranded and there’s quite a bit of high water,” Sayers said.

Lawrence police were reportedly making a water rescue at the 26th and Winterbrook intersection in southwest Lawrence. A stoplight was also reported out at 11th and Tennessee streets. Barricades were set up at the intersection of 23rd Street and Ridge Court. And there were reports of flooding problems at 23rd and Ousdahl Road.

At Eighth and Tennessee streets, the basketball court in the Buford M. Watson Jr. Park was flooded level to the street, which was up to the backboard.

As bad as it was in Lawrence tonight, other areas to the north and east were getting even more rain, Sayers said.

“In some areas of Kansas City, there was up to six inches of rain,” Sayers said. The rain was expected to continue through the evening, he said.

At 9:12 p.m., the National Weather Service reported that radar was estimating rainfall rates of one to two inches per hour were falling along a line southeast of Clinton Lake to the city of Lawrence. An additional one to two inches of rainfall was expected across eastern and central Douglas County through 10:30 p.m.

Other areas expected to see flooding tonight include Bonner Springs, Edgerton, Olathe, Gardner and Kansas City, Kan.

The storms were preceded by hot, steamy weather. At 3 p.m. the temperature at Lawrence Municipal Airport was 91 and the heat index was 102. That high heat index continues through about 6:30 p.m.

The weather service expected the rains to continue through 1 a.m. The weather service says the chance for rain diminishes through Saturday morning, with only a 20 percent before 10 a.m.

Saturday’s morning low will be 64, with the high reaching 77 by Saturday afternoon. The skies are expected to be begin clearing by Saturday night, with northeast winds 10-15 mph.

Sunday’s morning low will be 55, with the high reaching 80 under sunny skies.

— Information from this story was also provided by Holly Naylor, 6News anchor/reporter.