EF1 tornado, San Antonio, Texas, July 15, 2007

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

July 15, 2007

Touchdown

2:30 AM CDT (07:30 UTC)

Lifted

2:35 AM CDT (07:35 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Bexar County

Touchdown point

29.502, -98.406

Lift-off point

29.507, -98.400

Record number

0707150130-01

Thunderstorms continued to develop beneath a persistent upper level low, producing heavy rain and flash flooding, as well as a tornado, on the morning of July 15.

In surveying damage in northeast San Antonio, staff found indications of a tornado at two locations. It is thought that the severe thunderstorm winds struck the area near 1:25 am CST and the tornado struck after the severe thunderstorm winds. The tornado damage was similar to the other damage in the area, consisting of fences blown down and trees snapped off or blown over, except that the debris was tossed in all different directions. It touched down near 1:30 am CST close to the intersection of Knollbluff and Flowing Spring and moved southeast for approximately 1000 feet before lifting and moving over a utility plant. At one point along Flowing Spring it fired pieces from the top of a fence toward the south into the second story of a home, and shortly afterward, it threw other pieces into a roof of a different home back to the northwest. The tornado touched down again near the intersection of Saddle Ridge and Cedar Moss, a little over a half-mile to the southeast of its lift point. Here it knocked over two large trees, tossing one to the east and one to the south. Residents at this location reported high winds, followed by hail, and then a ���calm period��� before their ears suddenly popped and they heard a sound like a ���freight train.��� The tornado moved toward the southeast for approximately 300 feet then lifted and dissipated. A review of the damage indicated tornado winds of 80 to 100 mph at both locations, making it an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:54 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 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.

The Austin/San Antonio radar (KEWX), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:29 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

10 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.