Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF0 tornado, Loop, Texas, June 2, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Gaines County on June 2, 2007, touching down at 12:40 AM 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 2, 2007
Touchdown
12:40 AM CDT (05:40 UTC)
Lifted
12:45 AM CDT (05:45 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Gaines County
Touchdown point
32.853, -102.387
Lift-off point
32.840, -102.380
Record number
0706022340-01

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.

A trained spotter observed a tornado northeast of the intersection of Gaines County Road 116 and Farm to Market Road 1420. This occurred in open country and did no damage.

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

The warnings

28 minutes of warning. NWS MAF issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:12 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:36 UTC and running to 08:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:36 UTC08:00 UTCTornado WatchMAF
05:12 UTC06:00 UTCTornado WarningMAF
05:59 UTC06:45 UTCTornado WarningMAF
06:30 UTC07:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMAF
06:54 UTC07:12 UTCTornado WarningMAF
18:28 UTC03:00 UTCTornado WatchMAF
18:57 UTC20:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:06 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

5.7 hours before the tornado, 101 km from the path. June 3, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-06-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1245 joules per kilogram, CIN -98, lifted condensation level 1986 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 2007-06-03The 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 -11 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1245 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-98 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2210 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1986 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.3 hours after it, 101 km from the path. June 3, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-06-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1012 joules per kilogram, CIN -10, lifted condensation level 667 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 2007-06-03The 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 60 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1012 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10 J/kg
Surface CAPE
331 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
667 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
60 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
103 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Midland/Odessa radar (KMAF), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:38 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
05:23 UTCHAIL 2.75LoopGaines, TXBASEBALL SIZE HAIL IN LOOP.
05:40 UTCTORNADO5 Sse LoopGaines, TXTORNADO ON THE GROUND NEAR INTERSECTION OF CR 116 AND CR 131.
06:30 UTCFLASH FLOOD5 W TahokaLynn, TXHIGH WATER REPORTED FLOWING OVER HIGHWAY 380
06:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGLamesaDawson, TXPOWER LINES DOWN AND A WELL ESTABLISHED TREE KNOCKED DOWN BY STRONG WINDS.
06:35 UTCTSTM WND GST 682 Se LamesaDawson, TXMEASURED AT TEXAS TECH MESONET SITE
06:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGThree LeaguesMartin, TXPOWER LINES DOWN ALONG FARM TO MARKET ROAD 2002.

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 2, 2007

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 22:19 PM CDTEF0Washington, WI0.015
June 26:35 PM CDTEF0Lyon, MN0.5100
June 27:55 PM CDTEF0Castro, TX0.230
June 28:15 PM CDTEF0Castro, TX4.0300
June 28:45 PM CDTEF0Hancock, IL0.125$5,000
June 29:14 PM CDTEF0Lamb, TX0.1100
June 210:34 PM CDTEF0Garza, TX0.8100
June 210:35 PM CDTEF0Lamb, TX1.5100
June 210:40 PM CDTEF0Hockley, TX0.8100
June 211:03 PM CDTEF0Hockley, TX1.075$15,000

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.