Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF0 tornado, Snook, Texas, April 25, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Burleson County on April 25, 2007, touching down at 2:15 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $75,000 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
April 25, 2007
Touchdown
2:15 AM CDT (07:15 UTC)
Lifted
2:16 AM CDT (07:16 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$75,000
County
Burleson County
Touchdown point
30.511, -96.506
Lift-off point
30.511, -96.506
Record number
0704250115-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A complex of strong to severe thunderstorms developed over central and south central Texas as an upper level disturbance approached from the west on the morning of Wednesday, the 25th.

Tornado sheared the roof off one vacant mobile home on FM 60. Another mobile home on CR 269 and a few metal sheds also sustained some roof damage and trees were snapped.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 06:40 UTC and running to 09:50 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
05:00 UTC09:48 UTCFlood WatchHGX
06:40 UTC09:50 UTCTornado WatchHGX
06:54 UTC07:20 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningHGX
07:37 UTC08:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningHGX
07:45 UTC08:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningHGX

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 05:54 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), 00:00Z

7.3 hours before the tornado, 268 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°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 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

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

4.7 hours after it, 268 km from the path. April 25, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z 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 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -96508, lifted condensation level 2095 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z 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 -20 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-96508 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2095 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-20 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:15 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
07:15 UTCTSTM WND DMGSnookBurleson, TXTREES DOWN AT FM2039 1 MILE NORTH OF HWY 60
07:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 605 Sw CaldwellBurleson, TX
07:15 UTCTORNADO3 Nw SnookBurleson, TXPOSSIBLE TORNADO WITH 1 MILE LONG PATH OF DAMAGE
07:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Nw SnookBurleson, TXTREE FELL ON CAR AT FM2039 NEAR TUNIS
07:55 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDBrenhamWashington, TXFUNNEL CLOUD SPOTTED NEAR FM389
07:55 UTCHAIL 0.255 W BrenhamWashington, TXHWY 290 AT GANSKI CREEK
08:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 E BrenhamWashington, TXTREES DOWN THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY
08:05 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 W College StationBrazos, TXROOF BLOWN OFF HOUSE IN WEST COLLEGE STATION
08:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGCollege StationBrazos, TXROOF OFF NEAR ROCK PRARIE AND WELLBORN
08:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGAndersonGrimes, TXTREE BLOWN DOWN ON A HOUSE.

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 25, 2007

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 2512:05 PM CDTEF0Brazoria, TX0.320
April 252:40 PM CDTEF0Christian, IL0.110
April 258:20 PM CDTEF0Polk, TX0.330

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.