Tornadoes · United States · Oregon · 2007

EF0 tornado, Lebanon, Oregon, September 28, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Linn County on September 28, 2007, touching down at 6:00 PM PDT and reaching 350 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 of property damage.

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 28, 2007
Touchdown
6:00 PM PDT (01:00 UTC)
Lifted
6:10 PM PDT (01:10 UTC)
On the ground
10 minutes
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
350 yards (320 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
Crop damage
$22,000
County
Linn County
Touchdown point
44.573, -122.900
Lift-off point
44.573, -122.900
Record number
0709281900-01

What the Weather Service recorded

In an unstable atmosphere, several thunderstorms moved over the forecast area. One such storm produced a short-lived tornado, that did considerable damage to a local farm. Dime size hail was also reported with the storm.

Storm survey found tornado off of Tennessee School Drive was on the ground for 5-10 minutes, with a path a little less than a mile in length, and maximum width 350 yards. Tornado tracked northwest to southeast over open fields and then in trees. Six farm buildings damaged, mostly roof damage. Estimated 90-100 mature trees damaged, with 20-30 of them snapped off low in the trunk, and 6 to 8 uprooted. One tree fell on farmhouse sustaining minor damage. Rated EF0 on enhanced Fujita scale, with gusts 75 to 85 mph.

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 00:26 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.

Salem/Mcnary, OR (KSLE), 00:00Z

1.0 hours before the tornado, 39 km from the path. September 29, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 00:00Z on 2007-09-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 13 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 1380 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, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 00:00Z on 2007-09-29The 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 63 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 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
13 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
555 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1380 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Salem/Mcnary, OR (KSLE), 12:00Z

11.0 hours after it, 39 km from the path. September 29, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 12:00Z on 2007-09-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 12 joules per kilogram, CIN -23, lifted condensation level 679 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, Salem/Mcnary, OR at 12:00Z on 2007-09-29The 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 99 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-23 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
679 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
140 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Portland,OR radar (KRTX), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:59 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
00:00 UTCTORNADO2 N LebanonLinn, ORROOFS DAMAGED ON SEVERAL FARM BUILDINGS OFF TENNESSEE SCHOOL DRIVE DAMAGED BY TORNADO. SEVERAL TREES UPROOTED AND 1 TREE SNAPPED OFF.
00:00 UTCTORNADO3 N LebanonLinn, ORSTORM SURVEY FOUND TORNADO OFF OF TENNESSEE SCHOOL DR. WAS ON THE GROUND FOR 5-10 MINUTES, WITH A PATH A LITTLE LESS THAN 1 MILE IN LENGTH, AND MAXIMUM WIDTH 350 YARDS. TORNADO TRACKED NW TO SE OVER OPEN FIELDS AND THEN
00:15 UTCTORNADOLebanonLinn, ORTORNADO TOUCHED DOWN BRIEFLY. NO REPORT OF DAMAGE.
02:15 UTCTORNADOLebanonLinn, ORTORNADO TOUCHED DOWN BRIEFLY. NO REPORT OF DAMAGE.

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 OregonEvery tornado in Oregon since 1950Warnings in force in Oregon nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 28, 2007

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 287:21 PM CDTEF0Gove, KS0.310

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.