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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:24 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | EWX |
| 21:36 UTC | 03:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | EWX |
| 22:41 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | EWX |
| 03:23 UTC | 16:10 UTC | Flood Warning | EWX |
| 03:30 UTC | 09:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | EWX |
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.
- 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
Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 00:00Z
1.1 hours after it, 213 km from the path. August 17, 2007.
- 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
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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:25 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 8 | San Antonio | Bexar, TX | AT 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 UTC | FLOOD | San Antonio | Bexar, TX | 2 1/2 FEET OF WATER OVER HOUSMAN RD 1/4 MILE E OF BABCOCK RD |
| 21:37 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | San Antonio | Bexar, TX | NWS EMPLOYEE REPORTS THERE ARE CURRENTLY 39 HIGH WATER RESCUES IN PROGRESS IN SAN ANTIONIO. |
| 21:53 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 5.65 | San Antonio | Bexar, TX | USAA 5.65 INCHES RAIN 8AM-4PM. |
| 22:04 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 4.65 | Olmos Park | Bexar, TX | SINCE 7AM. |
| 22:15 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.71 | 6 Wsw Boerne | Kendall, TX | ONE HOUR RAINFALL. |
| 22:30 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 4.76 | 2 E Boerne | Kendall, TX | SINCE 8AM. MANY ROADS FLOODED. |
| 22:45 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.64 | 6 Wsw Boerne | Kendall, TX | 30 MINUTE RAINFALL. TOTAL SINCE 7AM 5.84 INCHES. |
| 22:53 UTC | TORNADO | 9 Ne Boerne | Kendall, TX | KENDALL CO SHERIFF REPORTS TORNADO AT CAVE WITHOUT A NAME. UNKNOWN AMOUNT OF DAMAGE TO A BUILDING. |
| 23:00 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 0.89 | 5 Ssw Kendalia | Kendall, TX | ONE HOUR RAINFALL. TOTAL SINCE 7AM 2.51 INCHES. MINOR FLOODING. |
| 23:00 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 5.46 | San Antonio | Bexar, TX | VANCE JACKSON AT DEZAVALA. RAINFALL TOTAL NOON-5PM. |
| 23:45 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.11 | 5 Ssw Kendalia | Kendall, TX | RAINFALL IN 45 MINUTES. TOTAL SINCE 7AM 3.62. |
| 23:55 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 0.92 | 1 Sse Boerne | Kendall, TX | RAINFALL IN 55 MINUTES. |
| 01:45 UTC | FLOOD | San Antonio | Bexar, TX | MINOR 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.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 16 | 3:05 PM CDT | EF0 | Carroll, MO | 0.1 | 25 |
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.