Powerful thunderstorms roared across the Charlotte region Saturday evening, accompanied by damaging hail, strong winds and lightning that injured nine people in Burke County.

The storms formed along a stalled frontal system and continued to re-form throughout the evening, giving most areas two or more rounds of severe weather.

A tornado watch was in effect for much of the Charlotte area until 2 a.m. Sunday.

Nine people were struck and a dog was killed by lightning at a dog show Saturday evening in Morganton. The lightning strike happened around 6 p.m. at the Burke County Fairgrounds, and paramedics said they transported seven people to Grace Hospital.

There is an American Dog Breeders Association show this weekend at the fairgrounds.

Meanwhile, the storm also dropped baseball-size hail – about 23/4 inches in diameter – at the Gastonia Airport around 6:45 p.m., and airport officials said about 15 planes were damaged. Reports of hail 2 inches or more in diameter was common across Gaston, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, York, Lancaster and Union counties throughout the evening.

Hail that size usually causes significant damage to vehicles and roofs of buildings.

There also were reports of large hail in Burke and McDowell counties in the mountains.

There were several tornado warnings. Shortly after 5 p.m., radar detected what appeared to be a tornado near Kings Mountain. But there were no confirmed reports of a tornado touching down.

John Michalski of Gastonia said the hail at his home was about 3 inches in diameter. Michalski said the hail caused considerable damage to his car and his roof.

Police reported trees blown down near SouthPark mall and near uptown in Charlotte. Lincoln County emergency management officials said they received at least one report of a tree falling on a house.

National Weather Service meteorologists said the storms were “training” – forming and re-forming along the same path.

Such a storm was responsible for the injuries in Morganton. Rita Bond of Wilkesboro said a severe storm, which produced golf ball-sized hail, passed through the Burke County area.

Bond said she was standing about 20 feet away from a canopy under which several people were sheltered from the storm. The canopy was struck by lightning, she said, injuring several people and killing an American pit bull terrier that was waiting to be shown.

In Cleveland County, authorities say winds were strong enough to blow the vinyl siding off a residence about 5 miles south of Shelby. Hail of more than 1 inch in diameter was reported across the county.

Duke Energy was reporting about 15,000 power outages Saturday evening – a far cry from the 256,000 outages caused by storms Tuesday. Most of Saturday’s problems centered in Mecklenburg and York counties.