Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF1 tornado, Ozona, Texas, June 15, 2007

This EF1 tornado ran 3.2 miles across Crockett County on June 15, 2007, touching down at 10:40 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $70,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
June 15, 2007
Touchdown
10:40 PM CDT (03:40 UTC)
Lifted
10:48 PM CDT (03:48 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
3.2 miles (5.1 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$70,000
County
Crockett County
Touchdown point
30.605, -101.246
Lift-off point
30.629, -101.200
Record number
0706152140-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A moist unstable airmass combined with a weak shortwave caused thunderstorms to develop in the evening hours. There were reports of severe weather scattered across much of West Central Texas, including one tornado across Crockett County.

A tornado uprooted trees and damaged outbuildings and some mobile homes south of Ozona.

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

The warnings

11 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:29 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:06 UTC and running to 07:07 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:06 UTC07:07 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchSJT
00:38 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
01:37 UTC03:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningSJT
01:43 UTC02:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
02:40 UTC03:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
03:14 UTC04:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
03:29 UTC04:30 UTCTornado WarningSJT
04:25 UTC05:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
21:00 UTC17:00 UTCFlash Flood WatchSJT

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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.

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 00:00Z

3.7 hours before the tornado, 143 km from the path. June 16, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-06-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2212 joules per kilogram, CIN -94, lifted condensation level 2085 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, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-06-16The 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 27 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2212 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-94 J/kg
Surface CAPE
865 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2085 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
213 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.2
0-3 km lapse rate
8.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 12:00Z

8.3 hours after it, 143 km from the path. June 16, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-06-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 702 joules per kilogram, CIN -187, lifted condensation level 888 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, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-06-16The 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 63 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.193958Sfc1 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
702 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-187 J/kg
Surface CAPE
49 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
888 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
283 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
10.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The San Angelo radar (KSJT), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:40 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
01:16 UTCHAIL 1N BarnhartIrion, TXWINDS GUSTING 50 TO 55 MPH
01:20 UTCHAIL 1.75N BarnhartIrion, TXWINDS 50 TO 55 MPH.
03:20 UTCHAIL 1.757 Sw OzonaCrockett, TXTREES STRIPPED BY HAIL.
03:40 UTCTORNADO8 Ssw OzonaCrockett, TXEF1 TORNADO UPROOTED TREES AND DAMAGED OUTBUILDINGS. PATH LENGTH 3 MILES AND WIDTH 100 YARDS.

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 15, 2007

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 157:33 PM EDTEF0Miami-Dade, FL0.120

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.