Tornadoes · United States · California · 2007

EF0 tornado, Newport Beach, California, September 22, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Orange County on September 22, 2007, touching down at 11:00 AM PDT and reaching 15 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
September 22, 2007
Touchdown
11:00 AM PDT (18:00 UTC)
Lifted
11:01 AM PDT (18:01 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
15 yards (14 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Orange County
Touchdown point
33.620, -117.930
Lift-off point
33.620, -117.930
Record number
0709221200-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold-core cutoff low pressure system off the coast of Southern California brought heavy rain to Orange County and waterspouts to the San Diego County coast. A band of convection just off the coast of San Diego and Orange Counties produced a line of at least 8 waterspouts and countless more funnel clouds in the span of about an hour. Several of these waterspouts occurred simultaneously within close proximity to each other. One waterspout came ashore at Cardiff State Beach and blew over some tents. Another waterspout came ashore in Newport Beach. None of the waterspouts caused any serious damage. The exact number of waterspouts and funnel clouds is not known, and the position and path length of each waterspout and funnel cloud is very much a rough estimate. This event was not associated with island band convection.

The public posted YouTube footage of a waterspout coming ashore in Newport Beach. The waterspout dissipated about one minute after leavig the ocean. The time of the event is estimated.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

San Diego, CA (KNKX), 12:00Z

6.0 hours before the tornado, 114 km from the path. September 22, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, San Diego, CA at 12:00Z on 2007-09-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -81657, lifted condensation level 1176 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, San Diego, CA at 12:00Z on 2007-09-22The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 145 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 90 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-81657 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1176 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
90 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
145 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
191 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

San Diego, CA (KNKX), 00:00Z

6.0 hours after it, 114 km from the path. September 23, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, San Diego, CA at 00:00Z on 2007-09-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 25 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 1094 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, San Diego, CA at 00:00Z on 2007-09-23The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 70 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
25 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
134 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1094 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
70 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Santa Ana/Jon-Wayne (SNA), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:53 UTC6555100° 7 kt1013.2
17:53 UTC6755110° 6 kt1013.5
18:10 UTC66.253.6130° 7 kt1013.5
18:53 UTC6853160° 3 kt1013.2
18:58 UTC69.853.6160° 9 kt1013.2FC
19:00 UTC69.853.6180° 10 kt1013.2FC
19:27 UTC6855.4140° 9 kt161013.5
19:53 UTC6953200° 13 kt191013.5

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Santa Ana Mts radar (KSOX), 35 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:01 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:43 UTCFLASH FLOODDowntown Los AngelesLos Angeles, CADEBRIS FLOW AND MUD SLIDE OCCURRED ON FOREST LAWN DRIVE BELOW THE BARHAM FIRE AREA, JUST SOUTH OF THE VENTURA FREEWAY, WHEN A CATCH BASIN OVERFLOWED. MUD COVERED A ONE HUNDRED YARD STRETCH OF ROAD UP TO 2 FEET DEEP, TRAP

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in CaliforniaEvery tornado in California since 1950Warnings in force in California nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 22, 2007

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 2212:43 PM PDTEF0San Diego, CA0.115$100
September 228:00 PM EDTEF0Collier, FL0.520

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.