Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF0 tornado, Kempner, Texas, June 17, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Lampasas County on June 17, 2007, touching down at 6:15 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $100,000 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 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 17, 2007
Touchdown
6:15 PM CDT (23:15 UTC)
Lifted
6:19 PM CDT (23:19 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$100,000
County
Lampasas County
Touchdown point
31.088, -97.977
Lift-off point
31.091, -97.969
Record number
0706171715-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level low lingered in the area for several days. An unstable atmosphere helped kick off several rounds of showers and storms. Boundaries helped focus rainfall totals over the same areas....leading to flash flooding.

Several modular homes were damaged as a brief tornado touched down off of FM 2657, on Sleepy Hollow Lane and Carroll Drive, just inside the Lampasas County line. Homes sustained roof and deck damage and a few were blown slightly off their foundations. Trees and fences were also torn down. One minor injury was reported when a woman was hit by flying debris. Eighteen residents were displaced. The tornado continued into Coryell County.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:36 UTC01:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

11.3 hours before the tornado, 204 km from the path. June 17, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-06-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 251 joules per kilogram, CIN -30, lifted condensation level 636 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-06-17The 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 51 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 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
251 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-30 J/kg
Surface CAPE
346 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
636 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
50 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

0.7 hours after it, 204 km from the path. June 18, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-06-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 860 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 894 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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-06-18The 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 86 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.1939Sfc1 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
860 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1364 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
894 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
134 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
2.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Ft Hood radar (KGRK), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:16 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
23:26 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD1 Ssw Copperas CoveCoryell, TXFUNNEL CLOUD AT HIGHWAY 190 AND FM 2657
23:30 UTCTORNADO1 Sw Copperas CoveCoryell, TXMODULAR HOMES DAMAGED SOUTHWEST EDGE OF TOWN...TIME ESTIMATED

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 17, 2007

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 174:30 AM CDTEF0Ransom, ND2.050
June 174:11 PM CDTEF0Polk, MN0.525
June 176:19 PM CDTEF0Coryell, TX0.530$100,000
June 178:40 PM CDTEF0Walworth, SD0.110
June 178:42 PM CDTEF0Walworth, SD0.110
June 178:47 PM CDTEF0Walworth, SD0.220
June 178:50 PM CDTEF0Walworth, SD0.110
June 179:50 PM CDTEF0Nelson, ND0.225

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.