The Wednesday afternoon storm that dumped hail on parts of the Southern Hills brought with it much-welcomed rain in some towns.

Hot Springs and the nearby area got an inch of rain, which Frank Maynard, emergency manager for Fall River County, said is putting some residents' minds at ease after the Alabaugh Fire, which started two weeks ago Saturday.

"It definitely helped put people at ease, but we're not out of the woods yet for fire danger," Maynard said. "We will take any rain that falls in our area gladly."

Maynard said the heavy rain caused some ash runoff in a couple of subdivisions but did not seem to cause any problems.

"The burn-off on soils was not really intense in most areas, so there are some materials there that will slow the runoff," he said.

He said he has met with the Natural Resource Conservation Service and the National Forest Service to discuss watershed issues after the fire.

There is no concern that ash will contaminate drinking water. The main concern is that ash runoff will affect area streams, the Cheyenne River, Cascade Falls and, eventually, Angostura.

But for now, Maynard said, there does not seem to be any significant problem from runoff.

Maynard said the main problem that came with Wednesday's storm was large hail.

Like the Hill City, Rochford and Hereford areas, Hot Springs experienced golf ball-sized hail and, in some areas, even slightly larger.

Maynard said there were a lot of broken windows in vehicles and homes.

He said the high winds accompanying the storm intensified the hail damage. There were many reports of broken car windows, and a few houses had windows broken on the north side of the structure.

"If the hail would have fallen straight down, it probably only would have damaged some shingles, but since it came at an angle, there were a lot of broken windows," Maynard said.

Mike Price, owner of Route 16 Auto Body in Hill City, said his shop was busy Thursday repairing cars damaged by hail.

"When it was hailing yesterday, my phone was already ringing," Price said.

He said he expects to be busy for a while and estimates that more then 700 people had car damage from Wednesday's storm.

"A lot of the poor folks were on vacation, so we're doing the best we can to help them," Price said.

He said this storm produced the worst hail damage he has seen since 2000.

"We expect to be busy for a while," he said.

Susan Sanders, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Rapid City, said Wednesday's rainfall combined with Thursday's cloud cover lowered fire danger in the Black Hills to moderate.

But Sanders said that will not last.

"The moisture and cloud cover have temporarily knocked it down, but we won't see a lasting relief to that fire danger," Sander said.

Sanders said adding to the problem of that limited relief is that any given day over the next week, a thunderstorm could develop and cause a dry-lightning strike.

"That's kind of the situation we're looking at into the middle of next week," she said.

The National Weather Service predicts extremely hot weather for this weekend in Rapid City and most of the surrounding area, with highs topping 100 degrees Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Contact Katie Brown at 394-8318 or katie.brown@rapidcityjournal.com