An active weather pattern sets up this week in the form of a weak frontal boundary. Much-needed rain returns to Central Florida starting Monday, with increasing thunderstorm chances over the next couple of days.

In Brevard County, power was restored to Titusville High and Coquina Elementary schools an outage due to a downed power line from a lightning strike.

Officials say Coquina Elementary School let out at 2:30 p.m. and the high school will let out at 3:40 p.m.

Some areas with the heaviest amount of rainfall saw about two to three inches of precipitation.

The weak front stalls north of Central Florida Monday afternoon, while moisture begins to pool across the state. Inland-moving sea breeze boundaries will be the main focus for showers and storms in the afternoon.

The highest rain chances exist north of Orlando. High temperatures will reach the mid-80s along the coast, with upper 80s to 90 degrees inland.

Stormy weather continues through early Monday evening. Precipitation begins weakening after sunset.

Overnight, expect partly cloudy skies and muggy conditions as low temperatures fall into the upper 60s, to near 70 degrees.

Deep moisture stays in place, keeping beneficial rain chances in the forecast through Thursday. Temperatures remain summerlike, and scattered storms will develop each day. Some storms may become strong, with frequent lightning, gusty winds, and locally heavy rain.

Lightning from storms raises fire danger

Afternoon storms brought drought relief but they also brought headaches with lightning strikes.

The lightning is believed to have started brush fires from one end of the Volusia County to the other.

Smoke from one of the brush fires is right behind the Daytona State College campus in Deltona. The report came in as lightning striking one of the trees, then a great deal of smoke.

Deltona firefighters have worked on the for several hours. They actually had to wait for Florida Forest Service’s heavy trucks to arrive because rangers were fighting more than half a dozen fires in the county.

One of those brush fires was in the Pine Bluff conservation area off of State Road 415. There was another one in the Daytona Park estates subdivision. Rangers assisted on all these fires, digging lines around them to contain them.

“[How busy have you all been?] Real busy this afternoon. [How many fires have you all had?] We've had six or seven today and I need to get on this one,” said firefighter Bill Bradov as he got in a truck to leave.

Firefighters won't know for sure if lightning started these fires. However, they said these fires were not burning before the storm.

Rain did help put some of those fires out. But firefighters warn, they have to keep an eye on them in case any of those half dozen fires flare-up.

Orange County firefighters said lightning sparked a 4-acre brush fire in east Orange County Monday afternoon.

The brush fire started at about 3:20 p.m. in the area of Goldenrod Road and Lake Underhill.

No one has been injured. Firefighters are monitoring the fire because of homes in the area.