EF1 tornado, Silverton to Quitaque, Texas, March 28, 2007

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

March 28, 2007

Touchdown

5:43 PM CDT (22:43 UTC)

Lifted

6:00 PM CDT (23:00 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

6.8 miles (10.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$35,000

County

Briscoe County

Touchdown point

34.451, -101.357

Lift-off point

34.535, -101.300

Record number

0703281643-01

A supercell thunderstorm developed along the dryline over southeastern Swisher County, and quickly became tornadic. This storm produced a family of five tornadoes before it moved into Donley County of the Texas Panhandle. The most damaging tornado passed immediately west of Silverton (Briscoe County) shortly before 16:45 CST, where more than a half dozen utility poles and a few light structures were damaged.

A second supercell thunderstorm initiated along the dryline over eastern Hale and western Floyd County. This storm produced large hail and a family of tornadoes as it tracked northeastward. The most significant tornado to impact the South Plains region on the 28th developed as this storm tracked over the Caprock Canyons State Park area north of Quitaque (Briscoe County). This tornado damaged at least three structures as it cut a nearly twenty mile path across eastern Briscoe County, northwestern Hall County, and southern Donley County.

|The tornado that developed in extreme southeastern Swisher County continued to move northeastward into Briscoe County. The tornado remained in open country for several minutes before it dissipated. No damage was reported.

Storm spotters continued to track a tornadic storm across western Briscoe County, where they observed a second tornado in rural areas southwest of Silverton. This tornado remained in open fields for approximately five minutes. No damage was reported.

Multiple observers photographed a tornado that developed just southwest of Silverton at 16:43 CST. This tornado crossed Texas Highway 86 just west of Silverton. Local law enforcement officials reported that seven utility poles were damaged along with lightweight buildings as the tornado impacted the outskirts of the city. Storm chasers continued to track the tornado until it roped out north of Silverton over open terrain around 17:00 CST.

The supercell storm continued to produce tornadoes in a cyclic fashion over the rugged terrain northeast of Silverton. Storm chasers observed a large tornado that developed shortly after 17:00 CST and persisted over open country for more than ten minutes. The tornado was described to visually appear as a large cone with an estimated diameter of one eighth of a mile. No damage was reported.

A fifth tornado developed in a cyclic fashion around 17:10 CST just above the Caprock escarpment in northeastern Briscoe County. This tornado was observed by storm chasers, and was described as a rope tornado to the northeast of the larger cone tornado which was still in progress. This tornado additionally remained in open terrain and resulted in no damage.

Many storm chasers observed a large multiple vortex tornado that developed north of Quitaque shortly after 17:30 CST. The tornado initially touched down immediately north of Texas Highway 256, and tracked northeastward across the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River. The tornado cut a twelve mile long path through the mesquite thickets of eastern Briscoe County, however, it continued across northwestern Hall County and into extreme southern Donley County before ending at 17:09 CST. The total path length was nearly twenty miles in length. |Despite the rural nature of the area, a few structures sustained significant damage. A trailer house was destroyed about five miles south of the river. The trailer was vacant when the tornado struck, but frequently served to house deer hunters. A single-story residence also was impacted by the tornado near Antelope Flat. The roof was totally blown off of the home. A forty by twenty-four foot barn used to store all-terrain vehicles also was destroyed at the homestead. At least two wind mills were additionally destroyed. The destruction of the trailer house, the complete loss of the roof to the home, and the destruction of the large barn all support an EF2 rating. No injuries were reported.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS LUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:15 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:15 UTC and running to 04:22 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 21:01 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.

Plainview (PVW), 51 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:43 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

65 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 66 of them

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.