Tornadoes · United States · New Mexico · 2007

EF0 tornado, Lakewood, New Mexico, September 26, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 5.0 miles across Eddy County on September 26, 2007, touching down at 2:34 PM MDT and reaching 200 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 26, 2007
Touchdown
2:34 PM MDT (20:34 UTC)
Lifted
2:44 PM MDT (20:44 UTC)
On the ground
10 minutes
Path length
5.0 miles (8.1 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Eddy County
Touchdown point
32.564, -104.560
Lift-off point
32.538, -104.479
Record number
0709261434-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A high pressure ridge was situated over much of the U.S. The combination of a stationary front over southeastern New Mexico and abundant moisture provided by southeast flow off the Gulf of Mexico, produced showers and thunderstorms across portions of southeastern New Mexico.

An Indian Gas Plant employee reported a tornado in an open field approximately one mile north of the plant. The tornado lasted ten minutes. No damage was reported.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:09 UTC20:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
20:18 UTC21:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
21:08 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
22:14 UTC23:01 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF

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 19:50 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.

Santa Teresa, NM (KEPZ), 12:00Z

8.6 hours before the tornado, 219 km from the path. September 26, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Santa Teresa, NM at 12:00Z on 2007-09-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 299 joules per kilogram, CIN -92, lifted condensation level 1548 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, Santa Teresa, NM at 12:00Z on 2007-09-26The 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 95 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
299 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-92 J/kg
Surface CAPE
19 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1548 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
184 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Santa Teresa, NM (KEPZ), 00:00Z

3.4 hours after it, 219 km from the path. September 27, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Santa Teresa, NM at 00:00Z on 2007-09-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 149 joules per kilogram, CIN -77, lifted condensation level 2645 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, Santa Teresa, NM at 00:00Z on 2007-09-27The 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 3 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
149 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-77 J/kg
Surface CAPE
193 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2645 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
3 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Holloman AFB radar (KHDX), 161 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:34 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
19:28 UTCHAIL 1.7522 Nw CarlsbadEddy, NM
20:28 UTCHAIL 1.7522 Nw CarlsbadEddy, NM
20:34 UTCTORNADO12 Sw Seven RiversEddy, NMTHE PUBLIC REPORTED A TORNADO ONE MILE NORTH OF THE INDIAN BASIN GAS PLANT.
21:00 UTCHAIL 0.7512 Sw Seven RiversEddy, NMPENNY SIZED HAIL FELL AT THE INDIAN BASIN GAS PLANT.
21:12 UTCHAIL 110 Nw CarlsbadEddy, NM
21:22 UTCHAIL 112 Nw CarlsbadEddy, NMQUARTER SIZED HAIL FELL AT THE INTERSECTION OF U.S. HIGHWAY 285 AND TEXAS STATE HIGHWAY 137.
21:40 UTCHAIL 1.753 Sw CarlsbadEddy, NM
21:48 UTCHAIL 0.882 N CarlsbadEddy, NM

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 New MexicoEvery tornado in New Mexico since 1950Warnings in force in New Mexico nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 26, 2007

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 266:00 PM EDTEF1Warren, PA3.050$75,000

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.