The rain from the most recent storm left its mark on Santa Cruz County on Tuesday. But it looks like the county will enter a dry period at least for the next few days, according to the National Weather Service.

The forecast is calling for sunny and mostly sunny conditions for the region through Friday, according to the weather service.

In the North San Francisco Bay Area, rain was expected to get heavier. The weather service forecast the possibility of lightning, but meteorologist Brayden Murdock said no strikes in populated areas had been reported.

“They’ve all mostly been out off the coast over the ocean,” Murdock said. “As the cells approach the shore, they’re losing some of their steam, so we haven’t seen the lightning or anything else.”

Heavy rain blew sideways at times during a Monday storm that left much of the Bay Area soaked. It was the second of two systems after a lighter one passed through the Bay Area on Saturday and into Sunday.

The two storms left behind significant rain totals. According to the weather service, about 5¼ inches of rain fell in Ben Lomond in Santa Cruz County between Saturday and Tuesday mornings. The storms also dumped about 3 1/3 inches on Mount Diablo and 1¼ inches on Oakland in the same period.

Ben Lomond topped the Santa Cruz County rain totals for the past 24 hours, according to a Sentinel weather observer. Ben Lomond posted a half inch with a season total of 41.02 inches since Oct. 1, the start of the rain year.

Other county figures included 0.49 inches in Freedom, 0.39 inches in Scotts Valley and 0.20 inches in La Selva Beach.

The havoc left behind by Monday’s storm and the previous ones was noticeable during Tuesday’s morning commute. By Tuesday morning, a fallen tree blocked a portion of Highway 9 near Felton, according to the California Highway Patrol. The CHP shut down the highway and asked motorists to use alternate routes.

Caltrans also closed down Niles Canyon Road/Highway 84 from Sunol to Fremont in both directions for repairs. A section of shoulder washed out in the storm and the highway needed various other fixes, too.

The California Highway Patrol said the highway would be closed for at least “a few days.”

The heaviest rain from the first storms also fell in the North Bay, with Saint Helena in Napa County receiving 1.08 inches in a 24-hour period ending at 4 a.m.

In the East Bay, about six-tenths of an inch fell in Orinda and a quarter inch in Oakland. An inch of rain fell in La Honda in the South Bay, and Los Gatos received a little more than one-third of an inch. The storm did miss some areas; San Jose had no measurable rain in the same 24-hour period.

PG&E said the early rain Tuesday left about 1,950 customers without power at 1 p.m. Of those, about 880 were in the North Bay, 490 in the East Bay and 260 in San Francisco. Early Tuesday afternoon, the utility reported eight outages that left about 100 customers without power in Santa Cruz County. By 4 p.m. Tuesday, the outage count was down to five and customers without power figure was at nine.

Crews trying to return power were expected to have conditions with winds blowing far less intensely, meteorologist Sean Miller said.

“It’s not gonna be anything like we’ve seen the last couple of days,” he said.

The system also is expected to bring more rain and some snow to the Sierra Nevada and Tahoe region. A winter storm warning remained in effect in that area, with difficult travel expected through Wednesday morning.

A flood watch for Santa Cruz County was scheduled until 10 a.m. Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

The Bay Area was expected to have a few hours without rain early Tuesday before the rainfall likely begins again sometime in the afternoon or evening, according to Miller. Those isolated showers are expected to last through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.

Once that storm passes, the drying out may be relatively short. Miller said a lighter rain system than the previous ones is making its way to the region and that it could result in rain for areas of the region by late Friday or early Saturday.