The possibility of damaging winds and hail threatened the region Friday night as thunderstorms rocked the Dallas-Fort Worth sky.

There was also concern about flash flooding mainly west and northwest of those cities Friday night, according to the National Weather Service.

Tarrant, Dallas, Denton and Collin were among the North Texas counties under a severe thunderstorm watch issued about 9:15 p.m. Friday. That watch was canceled shortly before midnight.

The rain is expected to continue into Saturday morning, creating a flooding threat, according to Jason Godwin, a weather service meteorologist.

Storms began developing Friday evening over the West Texas panhandle behind a cold front. Those storms were expected to track east throughout the evening. They moved into parts of North Texas starting at 6 p.m., and severe storm warnings were issued in some areas. The most likely timing in the Fort Worth area was expected to be between 8 p.m. Friday and 2 a.m. Saturday.

The greatest threat for the area was strong winds, with the possibility of gusts up to 60 mph, Godwin said. People should take precautions, he said, such as securing outdoor patio furniture or anything that could blow away.

A secondary threat, he said, was hail that could be larger than an inch in diameter, or about the size of a quarter.

“And then a third is going to be the potential for some heavy rain — most areas will probably get an inch of rain. Some places could get even over two inches of rain by the time this is all said and done,” he said. “Any typical trouble spots — underpasses, construction zones, like that — could be prone to a little bit of flooding.”

He said that “while the tornado threat isn’t real high, you can’t completely rule out a few isolated tornadoes” with the thunderstorms. People should be keeping up to date with weather reports and not just rely on outdoor tornado sirens, he said.

The majority of the rain expected to fall over the next 24 hours is expected to come Saturday morning, Godwin said. The rain is expected to continue through the afternoon.

There’s an 80 percent chance of rain Friday night and Saturday.

This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 11:17 AM.