Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2007

EF0 tornado, Carrollton, Missouri, August 16, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Carroll County on August 16, 2007, touching down at 3:05 PM CDT and reaching 25 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
August 16, 2007
Touchdown
3:05 PM CDT (20:05 UTC)
Lifted
3:06 PM CDT (20:06 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Carroll County
Touchdown point
39.341, -93.500
Lift-off point
39.341, -93.500
Record number
0708161405-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cluster of severe thunderstorms produced hail, high winds, and an isolated tornado, over portions of central Missouri on August 16, 2007.

Delayed report received from public via broadcast media. Brief tornado touchdown at 1405 CST. No damage noted.

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

The warnings

11 minutes of warning. NWS EAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:54 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:54 UTC20:30 UTCTornado WarningEAX
20:25 UTC00:59 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchEAX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:03 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z

8.1 hours before the tornado, 188 km from the path. August 16, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2007-08-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 345 joules per kilogram, CIN -273, lifted condensation level 1998 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Topeka, KS at 12:00Z on 2007-08-16The 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 46 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.193958Sfc1 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
345 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-273 J/kg
Surface CAPE
787 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1998 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
46 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-42 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

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

3.9 hours after it, 188 km from the path. August 17, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2007-08-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 164 joules per kilogram, CIN -181, lifted condensation level 2048 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z on 2007-08-17The 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 51 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.1939Sfc1 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
164 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-181 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1989 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2048 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
206 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Pleasant Hill radar (KEAX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:05 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
20:05 UTCTORNADO2 S CarrolltonCarroll, MODELAYED REPORT RECEIVED FROM PUBLIC VIA BROADCAST MEDIA. EXACT TIME AND LOCATION ESTIMATED. NO DAMAGE NOTED.
20:10 UTCHAIL 0.755 S CarrolltonCarroll, MODIME SIZE HAIL REPORTED FOR 5 MIN 5 MILES SOUTH OF CARROLLTON, WITH HVY RAIN, LOTS OF LIGHTNING AND STRONG WINDS.
20:20 UTCHAIL 0.75Malta BendSaline, MOPUBLIC REPORT OF DIME SIZE HAIL, HIGH WINDS, HEAVY RAIN AND FREQUENT LIGHTNING.
20:55 UTCTSTM WND GST 541 S MarshallSaline, MO

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 MissouriEvery tornado in Missouri since 1950Warnings in force in Missouri nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 16, 2007

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 165:53 PM CDTEF1Kendall, TX0.550$10,000

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.