EF0 tornado, Ft Davis, Texas, April 29, 2007

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

April 29, 2007

Touchdown

11:40 AM CDT (16:40 UTC)

Lifted

11:54 AM CDT (16:54 UTC)

On the ground

14 minutes

Path length

3.5 miles (5.6 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Jeff Davis County

Touchdown point

30.547, -103.864

Lift-off point

30.600, -103.904

Record number

0704291040-01

An upper level low pressure system located over northern portions of Mexico in combination with east to southeast surface winds pulling in abundant amounts of Gulf moisture and providing upslope flow, led to the development of showers and thunderstorms across west Texas and southeastern New Mexico. |During the overnight hours on early Sunday morning, showers and thunderstorms moved out of northern Mexico into southwest Texas. Additional thunderstorms developed over the higher elevations of southwest Texas leading to pre-sunrise severe weather in the form of hail and flash flooding across the southwest portions of the County Warning Area. As the morning progressed, a large area of embedded showers and thunderstorms moved northeastward across southeastern New Mexico and the Texas Permian Basin producing occasional severe weather, before exiting into the South Plains of West Texas.|With antecedent conditions remaining in place, the additional boundaries left by morning convection and daytime heating led to thunderstorm re-development by early Sunday afternoon and a significant severe weather event that affected much of the area into the pre-dawn hours on Monday morning.

During the late morning of April 29, the Jeff Davis County emergency manager reported a tornado just south of the intersection of Texas Highways 166 and 17 over open country. While several hundred yards wide, the tornado was described by several spotters as having a relatively weak rotation. This is confirmed by the lack of damage as the tornado crossed both Highway 17 and Highway 166. The tornado moved along a north northwest track, just missing most of the the town of Fort Davis. The tornado then moved into Davis Mountains State Park, across Skyline Drive near Scenic Outlook, and then down the mountain into the lower elevations on the east side of the park. Tree damage was noted both on the mountain side and in the valley areas. As the tornado crossed Highway 118, it began to meander along Limpia Creek before finally dissipating.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 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 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.

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 222 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:38 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.