EF1 tornado, Mc Allen, Texas, July 16, 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 16, 2007

Touchdown

8:00 AM CDT (13:00 UTC)

Lifted

8:30 AM CDT (13:30 UTC)

On the ground

30 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Hidalgo County

Touchdown point

26.200, -98.230

Lift-off point

26.200, -98.230

Record number

0707160700-01

The upper level low pressure system over South Texas triggered showers and thunderstorms. The additional rainfall over saturated ground produced localized flooding of streets and low lying areas.

Intense thunderstorms in McAllen produced a tornado between 7 and 7:30 AM along with torrential rainfall and widespread street flooding.||Storm damage was observed from the vicinity of 23rd street and Expressway 83 in McAllen...oriented northeastward toward the intersection of 16th and Business 83 in McAllen. Two uprooted hardwood trees were observed. Substantial structural damage was observed to an automobile shop near 23rd and Expressway 83 and to a lumber retailer on Bicentennial Road between Expressway 83 and Business 83. At least one power pole was toppled. ||A large three sided canopy type roof and gabled roofing material at the lumber yard was either knocked over or ripped off with the concrete anchors ripped from the asphalt. This material was scattered in many directions into adjoining lots or across Bicentennial Avenue. It is estimated that one of the concrete anchors was tossed a distance of 50 feet.||A decorative light pole and street sign was also observed to be completed bent in the general vicinity in a manner consistent with tornado type winds. Roofing materials were twisted around adjacent palm trees. Materials underneath the roofing and canopy, lumber and plywood, were displaced.|

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 12:38 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 Brownsville radar (KBRO), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:01 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

3 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.