Dallas Weather: At least 1 tornado confirmed; hail causes damage during Thursday's storms
DALLAS - Lots of hail and at least one small tornado damaged homes and businesses during Thursday’s storms.
The severe weather didn’t affect everyone in North Texas. But in some counties like Denton County and Collin County, it made an impression.
Many people will spend their weekend cleaning up.
MORE: Dallas-Fort Worth Weather
Brief tornado reported in Frisco
A storm spotter shared video of ominous clouds and a possible tornado in Frisco.
Michael Beard shot the video just after a tornado warning was issued for Collin County.
The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado did touch down.
The storms caused some damage on the UNT Frisco campus.
One man told FOX 4 he was inside a building on campus Thursday night and parked his car not far away.
When the weather moved in, the high winds pushed his car around. It hit a curb and flipped over.
Thankfully, no one was inside the car, and no one was hurt. But the vehicle will need repairs.
Heavy hail in Denton County
Viewer Daniel Farris said the entrance to his home in Little Elm looked like a flooded river of hail.
Many other viewers in Denton and Collin counties shared photos of significant hail. It reached the size of quarters and golf balls in Flower Mound.
Hailey Williams took her dog for a quick walk after the worst of the storm had passed. She described what she encountered as she was driving home from work.
"I was driving home on 171 and it sounded like baseballs were hitting my car," she said.
Thankfully, her car did not have significant damage.
"It’s pretty wild. I’m from California so to see this is pretty crazy," Williams said.
Wrena Cooks is an office manager at a daycare in Lantana, a few miles south of Denton. Her Honda was one of several cars that were heavily damaged by hail.
"I come out and here she is," she laughed while showing FOX 4 her damaged car. "So far, two busted tail lights, one on the ground."
Her mom’s boyfriend does windshield replacement, so they showed up quickly to help her out.
A shopping plaza in Roanoke was hard hit by the storm.
"There was nothing I could do. We just watched it destroy all the cars in the parking lot, including mine," Aubrey Russell said. "It sounded like a warzone, just coming down onto the roof, just bombs going off."
"It just came out of nowhere, [boom, boom]. We watched it and said where is this going to stop," said Silver Taylor, owner of a Dickies BBQ
Baseball and softball size hail pummeled cars and homes. Russell said minutes seemed like an eternity, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
"Back window gone, mirror gone, front windshield gone, everything. It was absolutely awful," she said.
Kevin Jacobs is a roofer. He was in Roanoke Friday, and he was busy.
"It’s definitely job security, but at the same time, helping homeowners, it can be stressful on both ends," he said.
Most of the damage was to cars in parking lots and driveways.
Taylor had to juggle opening her store and deal with damages to her car Friday morning.
"It’s sad, it really is. This morning we’ve got to pick up and keep going," Taylor added.
Russell tried to make light of the situation, but fears her car could be a total loss.
"My car is filled with glass, driving home was even scarier," she said. "I will be lucky if they don’t total my car out with all the damage done."
Fires in Celina sparked by lightning
Firefighters in the city of Celina, which is along the Denton-Collin County line, responded to two structure fires that started during the storm.
Fire investigators believe lightning started the fires.
No serious injuries were reported.
The city said it had sounded warning sirens because of the severe storms.