Electricity was back up in parts of Albert Lea shortly after 12:30 p.m., following outages caused by the brief thunderstorm that rolled through the area Thursday morning.

“Our whole system was affected,” said Alliant Energy Strategic Accounts Manager Dave Wentzel.

Crews worked throughout the morning to get power back up and determine the cause of the multiple outages. Wentzel said the assumption as of noon Thursday was that lightening and straight-line winds affected power lines.

Dark clouds rolled into Albert Lea just before 9 a.m. causing the morning to resemble nighttime and bringing torrential rain as well as wind gusts of 44 mph. Rain had stopped for the most part by 10 a.m.

The Albert Lea Wastewater Treatment Facility reported one-third of an inch of rain falling from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., but the plant was without power at 10:30 a.m.

During the storm, many cell phone signals were knocked out. Many phones remained without signals for most of the day.

There were no reports of hail in the area. Some reports of downed tree branches were heard in Wells and other parts of the county.

There is a chance of storms again late Thursday afternoon and early evening across southern Minnesota near a warm front covering the Iowa border , according to the National Weather Service.

The later storms could bring large hail, damaging winds and the threat of tornadoes.

Heat and humidity will build throughout the area going into and lasting the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.