EF0 tornado, Slaton, Texas, December 27, 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

December 27, 2007

Touchdown

5:30 PM CST (23:30 UTC)

Lifted

5:34 PM CST (23:34 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.3 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lubbock County

Touchdown point

33.416, -101.617

Lift-off point

33.418, -101.603

Record number

0712271730-01

A very dynamic storm system brought a variety of severe weather impacts to the South Plains of west Texas late on the 27th. ||Moist and sub-freezing upslope northeasterly flow behind a cold front resulted in persistent ice fog through much of the day over the extreme southeastern Texas Panhandle, particularly along the Caprock Escarpment. Although ice accumulated on most exposed surfaces, no adverse impacts were reported.||By late afternoon, weather impacts became much more intense and diverse. An area of heavy snow developed over the extreme southwestern Texas Panhandle and the northwestern South Plains. The area of wintry precipitation quickly moved northeastward, but not before accumulating snows occurred over the area and resulted in treacherous travel conditions. Roadways, including major interstate highways, became snowpacked - and remained dangerous through much of the morning hours on the 28th. ||Reported snow accumulations follow: 4 inches at Happy (Swisher County), 3 inches at Lazbuddie (Parmer County), 3 inches at Tulia (Swisher County), 2 inches at Nazareth (Castro County), 1 inch at Dimmitt (Castro County), 1 inch at Plainview (Hale County), and 1 inch at Silverton (Briscoe County).||South of the snow band, strong winds advected eastward behind a dryline-like feature that moved over the western and central South Plains. Wind gusts in excess of 40 mph were recorded at a number of Texas Tech University West Texas Mesonet sites over the western South Plains. Wind contributed to the failure of a metal shed building in northwest Lubbock. In addition, two non-mesocyclonic tornadoes were observed and photographed in the Lubbock vicinity. These tornadoes developed near a deepening surface low and its associated surface boundaries, and beneath towering cumulus clouds within a strongly unstable low-level airmass. No measurable precipitation occurred in association with the tornadic cumuliform clouds.

The local media relayed video of a tornado near U.S. Highway 84 between Slaton and Southland. The video showed a well-develop tornado just east of the highway over open fields. No damage was reported.

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.

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 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.

Lubbock International Airport (LBB), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 32 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:28 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

1 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.