Threat of lightning cancels several DFW area high school games

The storms arrived as scheduled overnight, dumping heavy rain across most of the Metroplex.

The heaviest rainfall appeared to have been from Johnson County to Mansfield

Heavy rainfall moved into Dallas-Fort Worth on Thursday evening from the northwest and could make the Friday morning rush hour a bit of a challenge.

“It is slowly drifting southeastward,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Amanda Schroeder. “We expect the heaviest rain overnight.”

Several area high school football games were canceled or delayed because of lightning.

A flash-flood watch will take effect for almost all of North Texas at 1 a.m. Friday and remain in effect until 1 a.m. Sunday.

And some flash-flood warnings could also be issued early Friday.

West of Fort Worth, flash-flood warnings were in effect Thursday afternoon near Sweetwater and Abilene.

Forecasters predict 3-6 inches across most of North Texas, but some places could get higher totals. The chance of rain overnight was 100 percent, 90 percent Friday and 100 percent chance Friday night.

“We are expecting a few isolated areas to see 8-10 inches over the entire period, depending where these heavier bands slow down or stall,” Schroeder said.

A second round of heavy rain is expected to move into the area Friday night and Saturday morning.

In about a 20-minute period Thursday morning, a storm dumped about a half-inch of rain in Graham. By 3:30 p.m., the community of Antelope in Jack County had recorded 3.28 inches.

Rainfall first moved into Tarrant County during the lunch hour, dropping light rain downtown. Heavier rain began falling in late afternoon.

This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 11:06 AM with the headline "Threat of lightning cancels several DFW area high school games."