EF0 tornado, Hondo to (Hdo)Hondo Muni Arpt, Texas, March 26, 2007

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

March 26, 2007

Touchdown

2:20 PM CDT (19:20 UTC)

Lifted

2:29 PM CDT (19:29 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Medina County

Touchdown point

29.350, -99.117

Lift-off point

29.350, -99.067

Record number

0703261320-01

As an upper level low moved northeastward from the Texas Big Bend, thunderstorms formed along a dry line in the western part of South Central Texas. The storms produced heavy rainfall, along with isolated periods of large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.

A very small tornado touched down about 1 mile east of the intersection of SH173 and US90, then lifted and touched one more time. Its two touchdowns were along a very narrow path approximately 3 miles in length. The only visible evidence of damage was on the north side of US90 between CR451 and Hondo Creek, about 5 miles east of Hondo. Large limbs had been torn from a tree and thrown toward the south. Had the damage been due to thunderstorm winds, the debris would have been blown toward the east. It was estimated that this tornado formed approximately 1320 CST and was an EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. It had a path width of 30 yards.

A chase team reported that a small, short-lived tornado had formed to the southwest of the first tornado near the town of Devine. It tracked briefly toward the northeast, lifting and dropping along a half-mile path. The tornado was estimated at 30 yards wide and was rated as an EF-0.

A second tornado was observed and photographed by a trained Skywarn spotter just west of the town of Castroville. The photographs were taken from a hill 2 miles west of Castroville and show a short-lived, small tornado. This tornado developed approximately 1345 CST and was an EF-0. The estimated path width was 40 yards and the estimated path length was one-half mile. No damage was reported with this tornado.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:06 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:30 UTC.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:31 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.

Hondo Municipal (HDO), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Austin/San Antonio radar (KEWX), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:18 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

2 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.