Thunderstorms drenched the Texas Gulf Coast on Thursday as rain fell across much of the lower Mississippi Valley. Most of the nation had sunny skies. Southern California sweltered, while showers were widely scattered across Wisconsin and Michigan, northeast Florida and the northern Pacific Coast. Heaviest rainfall during the 6 hours ending at 2 p.m. EDT included 4.10 inches near Corpus Christi, Texas. Other reports were of less than one-half inch. Temperatures at 3 p.m. EDT ranged from 44 degrees at both Houghton and Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., to 108 degrees at Palm Springs, Calif. The nation's morning low was 18 degrees at Gunnison, Colo. Friday's forecast called for rain and occasional thundershowers in northern New England, the lower Great Lakes and the upper Ohio Valley and across much of Florida, and showers from the northern Pacific Coast across the northern Plateau. High temperatures were expected to reach the 50s and 60s over northern Maine, the Great Lakes, the upper Mississippi Valley and along the northern and central Pacific Coast; the 90s to about 110 degrees from the desert Southwest through inland portions of southern California, and the 70s and 80s elsewhere.