Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF0 tornado, Seminole, Texas, June 1, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 2.5 miles across Gaines County on June 1, 2007, touching down at 7:25 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
June 1, 2007
Touchdown
7:25 PM CDT (00:25 UTC)
Lifted
7:35 PM CDT (00:35 UTC)
On the ground
10 minutes
Path length
2.5 miles (4.0 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Gaines County
Touchdown point
32.720, -102.392
Lift-off point
32.636, -102.410
Record number
0706011825-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A large upper level low was situated over the northern plains with a west coast ridge edging into west Texas and southeastern New Mexico. This produced favorable northwest flow aloft and contributed to a long weekend of severe weather over the area. ||Instability and wind shear combined to produce several weak tornadoes across west Texas and southeastern New Mexico. These tornadoes remained over open country and did no significant damage.

An off duty NWS employee reported a tornado that lasted between five and ten minutes and was approximately 50 yards wide. This tornado remained in open country and no structures were affected.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

13 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:12 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:44 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
00:12 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningMAF
01:03 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
01:26 UTC05:24 UTCTornado WatchMAF
02:37 UTC03:12 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
03:44 UTC04:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
04:39 UTC05:18 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 21:59 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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

0.4 hours before the tornado, 83 km from the path. June 2, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1144 joules per kilogram, CIN -125, lifted condensation level 2205 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-06-02The 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 -8 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1144 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-125 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2436 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2205 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-8 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
8.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

11.6 hours after it, 83 km from the path. June 2, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1592 joules per kilogram, CIN -61, lifted condensation level 650 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-06-02The 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 93 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1592 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-61 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1811 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
650 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
201 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
2.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:26 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
23:43 UTCHAIL 1.75LoopGaines, TX
23:47 UTCHAIL 1.752 W LoopGaines, TXREPORTED BY SEAGRAVES FIRE DEPARTMENT
00:13 UTCHAIL 2.756 S LoopGaines, TXGOLFBALL TO BASEBALL HAIL REPORTED BY EOC
00:25 UTCTORNADO15 E SeminoleGaines, TXREPORTED BY OFFDUTY NWS EMPLOYEE. LASTED 5-10 MINUTES. APPROX. 50YDS WIDE
01:10 UTCHAIL 4.2511 Ese SeagravesGaines, TXGOLFBALL TO SOFTBALL HAIL REPORTED BY SEAGRAVES FIRE DEPARTMENT
02:02 UTCHAIL 111 W TarzanMartin, TXON HIGHWAY 349

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 June 1, 2007

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 112:55 PM EDTEF0Monroe, FL0.630$20,000
June 112:07 PM CDTEF3Louisa, IA15.87747$16 million
June 112:44 PM CDTEF1Cedar, IA1.175
June 12:28 PM CDTEF2Jackson, IA to IL3.4350$3.3 million
June 13:15 PM CDTEF0Jo Daviess, IL0.510
June 13:17 PM CDTEF0Lafayette, WI0.120
June 13:31 PM CDTEF0Lafayette, WI0.230
June 16:30 PM CDTEF0Hamilton, IA0.130
June 19:45 PM EDTEF1Miami-Dade, FL3.975$20,000

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.