Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF0 tornado, Wantz, Texas, April 30, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across McMullen County on April 30, 2007, touching down at 4:35 PM CDT and reaching 50 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 30, 2007
Touchdown
4:35 PM CDT (21:35 UTC)
Lifted
4:40 PM CDT (21:40 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
McMullen County
Touchdown point
28.110, -98.620
Lift-off point
28.110, -98.612
Record number
0704301535-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Isolated supercell thunderstorms formed in the late afternoon and early evening hours across McMullen county. The storms tracked southwest into the instability axis, through northern and western Duval county and into eastern and southern Webb county.

A tornado was observed over open brush country just west of Highway 16 near F.M. 624, moving east.|

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:09 UTC and running to 00:19 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:09 UTC00:19 UTCTornado WatchCRP
21:27 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCRP
21:46 UTC22:15 UTCTornado WarningCRP
21:55 UTC23:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningCRP
22:13 UTC22:51 UTCTornado WarningCRP

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 19:55 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.

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 12:00Z

9.6 hours before the tornado, 132 km from the path. April 30, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-04-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2122 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 471 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-04-30The 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 33 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2122 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2469 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
471 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
75 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Corpus Christi, TX (KCRP), 00:00Z

2.4 hours after it, 132 km from the path. May 1, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-05-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2164 joules per kilogram, CIN -53, lifted condensation level 808 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, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-05-01The 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 146 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2164 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-53 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2705 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
808 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
146 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.4
Supercell composite
8.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:36 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
21:35 UTCTORNADO16 N FreerMcmullen, TXTORNADO OBSERVED JUST WEST OF HIGHWAY 16 NEAR F.M. 624 AND HIGWAY 16.
21:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG22 Ssw TildenMcmullen, TX2 POWER POLES SNAPPED ON COUNTY ROAD 624...ROUGHLY 8 MILES WEST OF HIGHWAY 16. TIME IS A VERY ROUGH ESTIMATE.
22:10 UTCHAIL 123 S TildenMcmullen, TXNICKLE TO QUARTER SIZE HAIL AT INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY 16 AND COUNTY ROAD 624.
23:15 UTCHAIL 1FreerDuval, TX
23:35 UTCHAIL 1FreerDuval, TX
23:50 UTCHAIL 2.5FreerDuval, TXGOLFBALL TO TENNIS BALL SIZE HAIL OBSERVED IN FREER.
00:20 UTCHAIL 1.25FreerDuval, 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 30, 2007

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 3012:20 PM CDTEF0Castro, TX0.250
April 3010:10 PM CDTEF0Runnels, TX1.4350$25,000

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.