Area farmers hoping to get rain on their freshly planted corn crops got their wish.

By about 3:30 p.m. Thursday just under an inch of rain had fallen on the Lawrence area since midnight, said Jenifer Bowen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Topeka office.

As of Sunday 44 percent of the area’s farmers had planted their corn — well ahead of the state and the nation, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service’s most recent crop progress report.

The storms could keep some farmers out of their fields to plant, but several farmers said Wednesday they could use the rain.

Douglas County and most of eastern Kansas were in moderate drought conditions as of April 22, according to the most recent U.S. Drought Report. Counties in the central and western parts of the state were listed as in severe or extreme drought.

This weekend could bring another half inch to an inch of rain, most of it likely to come Saturday evening and Sunday, Bowen said.