Tornadoes · United States · New Mexico · 2007

EF0 tornado, Tyrone, New Mexico, September 6, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Grant County on September 6, 2007, touching down at 1:45 PM MDT and reaching 40 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 6, 2007
Touchdown
1:45 PM MDT (19:45 UTC)
Lifted
2:00 PM MDT (20:00 UTC)
On the ground
15 minutes
Path length
3.0 miles (4.9 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Grant County
Touchdown point
32.650, -108.504
Lift-off point
32.611, -108.462
Record number
0709061345-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A landspout tornado formed within a circulation associated with the remnants of former Hurricane Henriette which moved inland from the Gulf of California.

A storm chaser photographed a small tornado southwest of Tyrone, NM. It was on the ground for about 15 minutes, but caused no damage as it was in a remote area.

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:25 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

7.8 hours before the tornado, 188 km from the path. September 6, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Santa Teresa, NM at 12:00Z on 2007-09-06Temperature 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 -77491, lifted condensation level 1356 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Santa Teresa, NM at 12:00Z on 2007-09-06The 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 18 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
-77491 J/kg
Surface CAPE
115 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1356 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
208 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.2 hours after it, 188 km from the path. September 7, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Santa Teresa, NM at 00:00Z on 2007-09-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 51 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 1404 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, Santa Teresa, NM at 00:00Z on 2007-09-07The 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 19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 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
51 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
328 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1404 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The El Paso radar (KEPZ), 188 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:46 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.

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 6, 2007

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 65:20 AM CDTEF0Christian, MO0.550$2,000
September 62:15 PM CDTEF0Jersey, IL0.950
September 65:27 PM CDTEF0Dodge, NE3.250
September 66:28 PM CDTEF0Sangamon, IL0.110

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.