It was a rude awakening for a group of men living in a duplex on Corydon Avenue and Grenadier Drive, Friday morning.

Around 6:15 a.m., lightning struck a tree in their yard, causing it explode and send pieces flying. One sliver even managed to get wedged into the side of the home.

 "All of a sudden I felt this really strong vibration and I heard the loud crack and the explosion of the tree,” Josh Behnish said. “The next thing I knew there was glass shattered, my window blew out and it was all over the inside of my room.”

Tree debris not only entered his home, but spread all over his Corydon neighborhood.

“It was a pretty big tree and now it's kinda just spread all over the place, like across the street and a couple of our neighbours have brought pieces of wood over,” Behnish added.

Candice Sliworsky said the storm caused her trampoline, which was anchored down in the yard, to end up on her deck.

“Next thing you know things started blowing around. It just picked up fast, like it was unexpected,” she said.

Sliworsky also said her heavy glass patio furniture was flipped over by the heavy winds, going from onone end of her deck to the other side.

“At one time my husband says maybe we should go down to the basement because the winds got so bad,” she added.

Overall the entire city had a rainy start to their Friday morning.

The rainfall was heaviest around 6 a.m. when Environment Canada said south St. Vital, one of the areas hit the hardest, received 45 millimetres of rain within 20 minutes.

The Forks saw 21 mm Friday morning, while east St. Boniface received 25 mm.

Outside of Winnipeg, Letellier recieved 76 mm, Sprague 63 mm, Morden 40 mm, Gretna 43 mm, Emerson got 11 mm.

There were also reports of large hail in various areas, including tennis ball sized hail at 3 a.m. in Reinfeld and Winkler, as well as toonie sized hail at 5 a.m. in Steinbach.

Meanwhile, the City of Winnipeg said they took four calls regarding flooding and sewage backups and one report of a downed tree.