Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF0 tornado, Rule, Texas, April 13, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.9 miles across Haskell County on April 13, 2007, touching down at 1:45 PM CDT and reaching 30 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
April 13, 2007
Touchdown
1:45 PM CDT (18:45 UTC)
Lifted
1:50 PM CDT (18:50 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.9 miles (1.4 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Haskell County
Touchdown point
33.220, -99.870
Lift-off point
33.230, -99.860
Record number
0704131245-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong upper low moving across the area with a strong dryline sparked isolated severe thunderstorms across portions of the area. An isolated supercell developed near the triple point low in Haskell County that produced a weak tornado near Rule. This storm continued to the northeast and later produced the large tornado near Seymour. Other severe thunderstorms that developed along the fast moving dryline in the Heartland produced large hail.

Eyewitness reported a tornado briefly skipping across Highway 6 near Rule. No damage was noted.

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

The warnings

17 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:28 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:31 UTC and running to 20:42 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
05:53 UTC11:57 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchSJT
17:31 UTC20:42 UTCTornado WatchSJT
18:13 UTC18:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
18:28 UTC19:00 UTCTornado WarningSJT
18:51 UTC19:15 UTCTornado WarningSJT

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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:22 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.

Fort Sill, OK (KFSI), 12:00Z

6.8 hours before the tornado, 208 km from the path. April 13, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Sill, OK at 12:00Z on 2007-04-13Temperature 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 -3134, lifted condensation level 1491 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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, Fort Sill, OK at 12:00Z on 2007-04-13The 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 447 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 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
-3134 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1491 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
447 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
635 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Dyess Afb/Abilene (DYS), 89 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:55 UTC7764.4150° 16 kt1003.4
17:55 UTC82.457.2170° 13 kt221002
18:55 UTC84.253.6220° 16 kt221001
19:55 UTC75.253.6270° 27 kt341002-SHRA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Dyess AFB radar (KDYX), 95 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:45 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
18:23 UTCHAIL 0.75Old GloryStonewall, TX
18:45 UTCTORNADO3 Nne RuleHaskell, TXPUBLIC REPORTED BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWNS 9 MILES NORTHWEST OF HASKELL. THIS REPORT WAS RELAYED TO THE NWS BY KTXS TV STATION LOCATED IN ABILENE.
19:02 UTCHAIL 11 S MundayKnox, TX
19:15 UTCHAIL 0.882 E TruscottKnox, TX
19:15 UTCHAIL 1.75GoreeKnox, TX
19:37 UTCHAIL 0.88Red SpringsBaylor, TX

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 TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 13, 2007

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 132:38 PM CDTEF0Baylor, TX6.0880$500
April 135:55 PM CDTEF0Tarrant, TX1.530$150,000
April 136:09 PM CDTEF1Tarrant, TX6.01251$2.0 million
April 137:00 PM CDTEF0Dallas, TX1.030$50,000
April 137:45 PM CDTEF0Rockwall, TX1.930$35,000
April 137:53 PM CDTEF0Hunt, TX0.130

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.