Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007
EF0 tornado, Del Rio, Texas, April 23, 2007
This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Val Verde County on April 23, 2007, touching down at 8:06 PM CDT and reaching 20 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 23, 2007
- Touchdown
- 8:06 PM CDT (01:06 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:08 PM CDT (01:08 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.2 miles (0.3 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Val Verde County
- Touchdown point
- 29.312, -100.900
- Lift-off point
- 29.312, -100.900
- Record number
- 0704231906-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A supercell thunderstorm produced two tornadoes, along with damaging winds and hail in the Del Rio area.
Staff from Del Rio Fire and Rescue observed a small tornado as it touched down just south of the city of Del Rio. This occurred in an open area with no damage.
A deputy from the Sheriff's Department watched as a rope-shaped tornado lifted up and dropped down as it skipped along a path approximately one mile long just east of the city of Del Rio at the Val Verde Park Estates. The tornado caused minor damage to ten homes and mobile homes. It also knocked over telephone poles and tossed outbuildings along its path.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
5 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:01 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:48 UTC and running to 02:33 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:45 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | EWX |
| 00:48 UTC | 02:33 UTC | Tornado Watch | EWX |
| 01:01 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | EWX |
| 01:28 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | EWX |
| 01:43 UTC | 03:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | EWX |
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 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.
Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 00:00Z
1.1 hours before the tornado, 9 km from the path. April 24, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1923 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -157 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2465 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1353 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 57 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 9 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 31 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 89 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 0.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.5 K/km
Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 12:00Z
10.9 hours after it, 9 km from the path. April 24, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2517 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -46 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2131 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 526 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 203 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 223 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.9
- Supercell composite
- 10.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.3 K/km
The surface observations
Del Rio International (Aut) (DRT), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:53 UTC | 83 | 64 | 150° 18 kt | 21 | 1011.2 | |
| 00:31 UTC | 82.4 | 64.4 | 140° 10 kt | 1011.5 | VCTS | |
| 00:53 UTC | 82 | 65 | 50° 5 kt | 1012.5 | TS | |
| 01:23 UTC | 69.8 | 64.4 | 310° 28 kt | 37 | 1015.6 | +TSRA SQ |
| 01:29 UTC | 66.2 | 64.4 | 50° 22 kt | 37 | 1013.5 | +TSRA |
| 01:32 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 60° 22 kt | 28 | 1013.2 | +TSRA |
| 01:39 UTC | 68 | 64.4 | 80° 20 kt | 1012.9 | TSRA | |
| 01:42 UTC | 69.8 | 64.4 | 70° 19 kt | 1012.9 | -TSRA | |
| 01:53 UTC | 68 | 65 | 80° 19 kt | 24 | 1012.9 | TS |
| 02:15 UTC | 69.8 | 64.4 | 80° 14 kt | 1012.9 | ||
| 02:53 UTC | 70 | 66 | 70° 5 kt | 1013.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Laughlin AFB radar (KDFX), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:05 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:06 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 4 S Del Rio | Val Verde, TX | FIRE DEPT REPORTED LARGER THAN GOLF BALL |
| 01:06 UTC | TORNADO | 4 S Del Rio | Val Verde, TX | |
| 01:25 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Del Rio | Val Verde, TX | |
| 01:34 UTC | TORNADO | Del Rio | Val Verde, TX | TOUCHDOWNS NORTH AND SOUTH OF DOWNTOWN DEL RIO |
| 01:38 UTC | TSTM WND GST 64 | Laughlin Afb | Val Verde, TX | |
| 01:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Laughlin Afb | Val Verde, TX | TELEPHONE POLE DOWN |
| 01:40 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Laughlin Afb | Val Verde, 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 23, 2007
24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 23 | 6:14 PM CDT | EF0 | Harper, OK | 0.2 | 30 | |||
| April 23 | 6:51 PM CDT | EF0 | Harper, OK | 0.2 | 30 | |||
| April 23 | 7:43 PM CDT | EF0 | Mitchell, TX | 4.0 | 50 | $8,000 | ||
| April 23 | 6:47 PM MDT | EF1 | Wallace, KS | 12.0 | 50 | $2,000 | ||
| April 23 | 7:03 PM MDT | EF0 | Wallace, KS | 5.0 | 75 | |||
| April 23 | 8:04 PM CDT | EF0 | Clark, KS | 1.4 | 50 | |||
| April 23 | 8:04 PM CDT | EF0 | Nolan, TX | 0.6 | 50 | |||
| April 23 | 8:10 PM CDT | EF1 | Clark, KS | 7.8 | 150 | |||
| April 23 | 8:22 PM CDT | EF0 | Comanche, KS | 1.7 | 75 | |||
| April 23 | 8:34 PM CDT | EF0 | Val Verde, TX | 1.0 | 30 | $100,000 | ||
| April 23 | 8:37 PM CDT | EF0 | Comanche, KS | 1.6 | 50 | |||
| April 23 | 9:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Nolan, TX | 0.9 | 50 | |||
| April 23 | 9:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Taylor, TX | 0.3 | 50 | |||
| April 23 | 9:38 PM CDT | EF0 | Thomas, KS | 6.0 | 25 | $48,000 | ||
| April 23 | 9:41 PM CDT | EF0 | Jones, TX | 0.7 | 50 | |||
| April 23 | 9:02 PM MDT | EF0 | Sherman, KS | 0.5 | 10 | |||
| April 23 | 10:15 PM CDT | EF1 | Thomas, KS | 13.0 | 50 | $16,000 | ||
| April 23 | 11:00 PM CDT | EF1 | Rawlins, KS | 2.5 | 50 | |||
| April 23 | 11:15 PM CDT | EF1 | Rawlins, KS | 12.5 | 100 | $305,000 | ||
| April 23 | 11:44 PM CDT | EF1 | Rawlins, KS | 6.0 | 75 | $26,000 | ||
| April 23 | 10:49 PM MDT | EF0 | Yuma, CO | 0.5 | 10 | |||
| April 23 | 11:00 PM MDT | EF0 | Phillips, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| April 23 | 11:15 PM MDT | EF0 | Chase, NE | 0.5 | 20 | |||
| April 23 | 11:16 PM MDT | EF0 | Chase, NE | 0.3 | 20 |
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.