As preparations for the annual Fourth of July Fireworks Extravaganza were being finalized, Joe Graves, Vicksburg’s recreation director, said “bring an umbrella, and bring a fan. It will be hot, but it will be fun.”

Either Graves needs to go to Louisiana and purchase lottery tickets, or it’s just years of experience, but he was right on the money Monday, as the city’s annual fireworks show had everything; it had fun, it had heat and, thanks to a convenient summer thunderstorm, it had rain.

As visitors crowded downtown Monday evening, many searching for the perfect spot for their chairs and blankets and the best view of the fireworks, many also kept their eyes glued to the west and their favorite phone weather apps.

And the rain did come. Thankfully, the rain remained relatively light and broke up shortly before the first firework was fired.

“We decided to go ahead and have the barge brought down a little early,” Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs said. “We wanted to make sure we had it in place.”

With the fireworks scheduled to begin at 9 p.m., the show began about 15 minutes early with organizers hoping to get it in between raindrops.

“I don’t think it hurt us at all tonight,” Flaggs said. “From what I have been hearing from others, I would estimate we had between 10,000 and 12,000 people downtown tonight.

“It was a great night.”