Rainy weather closed the 14th annual Cumming Country Fair & Festival Wednesday night and caused some traffic problems, but skies cleared Thursday and are expected to stay dry into next week.

Fairgrounds Administrator Dave Horton said radar showed severe weather heading to Cumming until about 9 p.m. Wednesday, so the decision was made not to open for the seventh night of the fair, which runs through Sunday.

"We tried to hold off because early it looked like it might have pushed through," Horton said Thursday. "If it was just a misting rain, then there are a few rides you can't ride during that time. But most of the rides would be open."

Forsyth County Sheriff's Capt. Frank Huggins said there were about 12 wrecks, two of which involved minor injuries, between 5 p.m. Wednesday to 9 a.m. Thursday.

Cumming Police Chief Mike Eason said no wrecks were reported in the city.

The heavy rain damaged several vendor tents, but Horton expected the fair to reopen Thursday night. He said severe weather has closed the fair four or five times in its history.

"We've had days where the crowd was affected by weather, but probably in 14 years I think we've had about four or five," he said. "For that many days over the years, I think that's a pretty good percentage."

Kent Frantz of the National Weather Service in Peachtree City said most of Forsyth County received about 1.5 inches of rain and the Big Creek basin in south Forsyth counted about 2.5 inches.

"It's looking like the Lake Lanier basin was a widespread 1 to 1.5 inches," he said. "That's good. That'll help. But it's not enough to reverse any trends.

"It might kind of slow the downward trend or level it out a little bit. But it's going to continue to fall until we get something more significant."

He said the county remains under extreme drought conditions, a situation that will not change without above normal rainfall in the winter and spring.

Frantz said it had been nearly four weeks since Forsyth received any significant rainfall.

"The overall trends are for October and November to be typically our drier months," he said. "This has kind of changed things with this one system."

There will be a period of partly cloudy skies until Tuesday, with forecasts calling for a 20 percent chance of showers next Wednesday.