Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF1 tornado, Boerne, Texas, August 16, 2007

This EF1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Kendall County on August 16, 2007, touching down at 5:53 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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
August 16, 2007
Touchdown
5:53 PM CDT (22:53 UTC)
Lifted
5:57 PM CDT (22:57 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Kendall County
Touchdown point
29.910, -98.730
Lift-off point
29.917, -98.730
Record number
0708161653-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Tropical Storm Erin moved inland near Port Aransas on the morning of August 16 and continued toward the northwest, in the general direction of San Antonio. By noon, the remnants of Erin were located near Pleasanton in Atascosa County with winds near 30 mph, and moving toward the northwest near 14 mph. What was left of Erin was estimated to be in the Rocksprings area by midnight that night and just south of Ozona on the morning of August 17. The track of highest rain totals associated with Erin over South Central Texas began in Karnes County and streamed northwestward across Wilson, Bexar, Kendall, Bandera, Medina, Gillespie and Kerr Counties.

The Sheriff's Department reported that a short-lived, small tornado touched down at the Cave-Without-a-Name northeast of Boerne. The tornado struck a small building and caused minor damage before lifting and dissipating. There were no injuries.

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

The warnings

12 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:41 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
09:24 UTC00:00 UTCFlash Flood WatchEWX
21:36 UTC03:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningEWX
22:41 UTC23:15 UTCTornado WarningEWX
03:23 UTC16:10 UTCFlood WarningEWX
03:30 UTC09:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningEWX

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:03 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.

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 12:00Z

10.9 hours before the tornado, 213 km from the path. August 16, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-08-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 883 joules per kilogram, CIN -49, lifted condensation level 932 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, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-08-16The 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 1 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 10 knots.1939Sfc1 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
883 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-49 J/kg
Surface CAPE
590 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
932 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
1 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
98 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 00:00Z

1.1 hours after it, 213 km from the path. August 17, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-08-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 224 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 1678 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, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-08-17The 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 22 knots.1939Sfc1 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
224 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
525 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1678 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
20 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Austin/San Antonio radar (KEWX), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:50 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
20:25 UTCHEAVY RAIN 8San AntonioBexar, TXAT LOOP 410 AND MARBACH 5.00 INCHES FROM 0600 AM UNTIL 0240 PM. 3.00 INCHES MORE FROM 0240 PM UNTIL 0325 PM FOR A TOTAL OF 8.00 INCHES.
21:15 UTCFLOODSan AntonioBexar, TX2 1/2 FEET OF WATER OVER HOUSMAN RD 1/4 MILE E OF BABCOCK RD
21:37 UTCFLASH FLOODSan AntonioBexar, TXNWS EMPLOYEE REPORTS THERE ARE CURRENTLY 39 HIGH WATER RESCUES IN PROGRESS IN SAN ANTIONIO.
21:53 UTCHEAVY RAIN 5.65San AntonioBexar, TXUSAA 5.65 INCHES RAIN 8AM-4PM.
22:04 UTCHEAVY RAIN 4.65Olmos ParkBexar, TXSINCE 7AM.
22:15 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.716 Wsw BoerneKendall, TXONE HOUR RAINFALL.
22:30 UTCHEAVY RAIN 4.762 E BoerneKendall, TXSINCE 8AM. MANY ROADS FLOODED.
22:45 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.646 Wsw BoerneKendall, TX30 MINUTE RAINFALL. TOTAL SINCE 7AM 5.84 INCHES.
22:53 UTCTORNADO9 Ne BoerneKendall, TXKENDALL CO SHERIFF REPORTS TORNADO AT CAVE WITHOUT A NAME. UNKNOWN AMOUNT OF DAMAGE TO A BUILDING.
23:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 0.895 Ssw KendaliaKendall, TXONE HOUR RAINFALL. TOTAL SINCE 7AM 2.51 INCHES. MINOR FLOODING.
23:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 5.46San AntonioBexar, TXVANCE JACKSON AT DEZAVALA. RAINFALL TOTAL NOON-5PM.
23:45 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.115 Ssw KendaliaKendall, TXRAINFALL IN 45 MINUTES. TOTAL SINCE 7AM 3.62.
23:55 UTCHEAVY RAIN 0.921 Sse BoerneKendall, TXRAINFALL IN 55 MINUTES.
01:45 UTCFLOODSan AntonioBexar, TXMINOR STREET FLOODING 3 MILES SW OF KSAT. RAINFALL TOTAL SINCE 9AM 5.01 INCHES.

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 August 16, 2007

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 163:05 PM CDTEF0Carroll, MO0.125

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.