Melbourne (CNN) Severe thunderstorms are pelting some regions of Australia suffering from historic wildfires with powerful rain, bringing much-needed relief to firefighters battling the worst blazes the country has seen in decades.

"Our fingers are crossed that this continues over the coming days," the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) said Friday in a tweet.

Rain has fallen on most firegrounds in the state over the last 24 hours, the RFS said. However, it wasn't enough to put out the flames. Eighty-two fires are still burning, including 30 that are yet to be contained.

Residents of drought-hit areas who have spent years waiting for rain celebrated its arrival on Thursday. Rain fell in major cities, including Sydney, where water flowed through the streets.

I'm in the Manning Valley which was hit by #AustralianBushfiresDisaster in November (and ever since), near the town of Bobin which was destroyed.



Today's #SydneyRain is very welcome here. Its raining cats & dogs = I'm out jumping in poodles (dad joke)



Have a great day 😅 pic.twitter.com/VQtXj1UbBV — 💧 Mark Anning 🔥🔥🔥 (@1EarthMedia) January 16, 2020

Forecasters predict more rain over the next few days, but they warn it could cause flash flooding in areas of parched land. Years of drought have left some regions so dry that rain just runs off the ground. The massive fires have burned through some of the vegetation that would normally soak up the precipitation.