Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF0 tornado, (Ali)Alice Intl Arpt, Texas, August 27, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Jim Wells County on August 27, 2007, touching down at 12:05 PM CDT and reaching 25 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 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
August 27, 2007
Touchdown
12:05 PM CDT (17:05 UTC)
Lifted
12:06 PM CDT (17:06 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Jim Wells County
Touchdown point
27.743, -97.960
Lift-off point
27.743, -97.962
Record number
0708271105-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A short lived tropical funnel touched down as a tornado across rural Jim Wells county.

A NWS storm survey, combined with spotter pictures, indicated an EF0 tornado briefly touched down along Hwy 336...between CR 338 and CR 3361. The touchdown occurred roughly 2 1/2 miles south of Bentonville and Hwy 44. Several large 6 inch diameter tree limbs were snapped. Sheet metal damage from a storage shed was also observed. A large trampoline was also blown onto the roof of a home. Minor crop damage was also observed.|

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.

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 16:31 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

5.1 hours before the tornado, 61 km from the path. August 27, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-08-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1834 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 787 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 2007-08-27The 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 19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 5 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
1834 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1626 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
787 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
19 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.9 hours after it, 61 km from the path. August 28, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Corpus Christi, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-08-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1185 joules per kilogram, CIN -41, lifted condensation level 1033 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 2007-08-28The 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 -15 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 7 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
1185 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-41 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2883 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1033 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-15 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-10 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:02 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
17:05 UTCTORNADO4 Sw Agua DulceJim Wells, TXNWS STORM SURVEY COMBINED WITH SPOTTER PICTURES INDICATE AN EF0 TORNADO BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN ALONG HWY 336...BETWEEN HIGHWAY 44 AND HWY 665. THE TOUCHDOWN OCCURRED ROUGHLY 2 1/2 MILES SOUTH OF BENTONVILLE AND HWY 44. SEV

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

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.