Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF1 tornado, Granbury, Texas, April 24, 2007

This EF1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Hood County on April 24, 2007, touching down at 2:00 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
April 24, 2007
Touchdown
2:00 PM CDT (19:00 UTC)
Lifted
2:02 PM CDT (19:02 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$200,000
County
Hood County
Touchdown point
32.384, -97.610
Lift-off point
32.389, -97.626
Record number
0704241300-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Low level moisture was in place across North Texas as an upper level low pressure system moved into the western half of the state. Large hail reports along with damaging winds and flash flooding were common throughout this twelve-hour event.

A tornado moved through the community of Pecan Plantation, causing damage to trees, tree limbs, roofs, windows, playground sets, and fences. The most significant damage occurred to a brick home on the north side of Equestrian Drive. Portions of the roof were removed, a tree in the front yard was uprooted, the garage door was blown in, and windows were broken. Wind speeds were estimated at 95-100 MPH.

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

The warnings

14 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:46 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:49 UTC and running to 02:46 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
16:49 UTC02:46 UTCTornado WatchFWD
18:46 UTC19:30 UTCTornado WarningFWD
01:57 UTC02:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD

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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 17:01 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 Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

7.0 hours before the tornado, 58 km from the path. April 24, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-04-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 819 joules per kilogram, CIN -306, lifted condensation level 685 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-04-24The 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 192 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
819 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-306 J/kg
Surface CAPE
892 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
685 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
192 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
177 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

5.0 hours after it, 58 km from the path. April 25, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-04-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1510 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 701 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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-04-25The 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 154 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
1510 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1780 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
701 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
154 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
5.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 36 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:57 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
18:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGGlen RoseSomervell, TXLARGE TREE DOWN IN GLEN ROSE AT PARK
18:52 UTCTSTM WND DMG11 Ese GranburyJohnson, TXROOF DAMAGE TO A HOUSE EAST OF PECAN PLANTATION
19:16 UTCTORNADOGodleyJohnson, TXTORNADO ON GROUND NEAR GODLEY
19:50 UTCFLASH FLOOD2 N Fort WorthTarrant, TX2 FT WATER ON PAFFORD ST NEAR I-35
20:50 UTCFLASH FLOODFort WorthTarrant, TX2 FEET OF WATER OVER ROAD AT BERRY STREET AND MCCART STREET NEAR TCU

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 24, 2007

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 2411:58 AM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO0.510$25,000
April 2412:15 PM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO4.025
April 2412:38 PM MDTEF0Lincoln, CO2.050
April 2412:58 PM MDTEF0Lincoln, CO0.150
April 242:20 PM CDTEF0Denton, TX1.050$40,000
April 241:26 PM MDTEF1Cheyenne, CO4.525$1,000
April 241:37 PM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO4.025
April 241:48 PM MDTEF0Wallace, KS0.510
April 241:55 PM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO5.050
April 242:00 PM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO0.510
April 242:00 PM MDTEF0Cheyenne, CO0.510
April 243:27 PM CDTEF0Osage, OK5.5100
April 246:20 PM CDTEF0Barton, MO2.825$5,000
April 247:01 PM CDTEF0Reno, KS0.025
April 247:01 PM CDTEF3Maverick, TX4.04007$80 million
April 247:09 PM CDTEF0Reno, KS0.025
April 247:12 PM CDTEF0Reno, KS0.025
April 247:14 PM CDTEF0Reno, KS0.025
April 247:16 PM CDTEF0Reno, KS0.025
April 247:19 PM CDTEF1Denton, TX2.550$100,000
April 247:29 PM CDTEF0Reno, KS0.025
April 247:43 PM CDTEF1Franklin, AR1.0100$125,000

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.