Tornadoes · United States · Missouri · 2007

EF0 tornado, Durham, Missouri, August 8, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Lewis County on August 8, 2007, touching down at 5:02 PM CDT and reaching 10 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 8, 2007
Touchdown
5:02 PM CDT (22:02 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Lewis County
Touchdown point
39.956, -91.670
Lift-off point
39.956, -91.670
Record number
0708081602-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An isolated supercell thunderstorm developed over northeast Missouri and moved southeast across Knox, Lewis, and Marion counties then crossed the river into Adams county Illinois before diminishing.

A tornado briefly touched down in a field one mile south of Durham. It flattened some corn in the field. No other damage was reported from the tornado.

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

The warnings

50 minutes of warning. NWS LSX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:12 UTC, 50 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:00 UTC and running to 00:48 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:00 UTC00:48 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLSX
21:12 UTC22:15 UTCTornado WarningLSX

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:15 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.

Davenport, (KDVN), 12:00Z

10.0 hours before the tornado, 210 km from the path. August 8, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2007-08-08Temperature 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 -83809, lifted condensation level 1214 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, Davenport, at 12:00Z on 2007-08-08The 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 -4 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-83809 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1214 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-4 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
16 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Davenport, (KDVN), 00:00Z

2.0 hours after it, 210 km from the path. August 9, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2007-08-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 194 joules per kilogram, CIN -74, lifted condensation level 1146 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Davenport, at 00:00Z on 2007-08-09The 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 79 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
194 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-74 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1191 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1146 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
158 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 164 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:00 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
21:15 UTCHAIL 0.88Knox CityKnox, MONICKEL SIZE HAIL FOR ABOUT 5 MINUTES IN KNOX CITY.
21:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGLa BelleLewis, MOSEVERAL LARGE TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN. THREE STRUCTURES DAMAGED IN THE TOWN OF LA BELLE.
21:25 UTCHAIL 13 N Knox CityKnox, MO
21:41 UTCHAIL 1.252 Se La BelleLewis, MOHALF DOLLAR SIZE HAIL BETWEEN LABELLE AND LEWISTOWN ON HIGHWAY 6.
21:41 UTCHAIL 1.25N La BelleLewis, MOHALF DOLLAR SIZE HAIL BETWEEN LABELLE AND LEWISTOWN ON HIGHWAY 6.
21:45 UTCHAIL 1LewistownLewis, MO
22:55 UTCHAIL 15 Nne PalmyraMarion, 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 8, 2007

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 86:22 AM EDTEF1Richmond, NY1.950
August 86:32 AM EDTEF2Kings, NY3.91009
August 83:59 PM CDTEF0McPherson, SD0.210
August 86:45 PM CDTEF0Atchison, MO0.125

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.