EF0 tornado, Lefors, Texas, March 28, 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 28, 2007

Touchdown

8:30 PM CDT (01:30 UTC)

Path length

0.3 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$3,000

County

Gray County

Touchdown point

35.420, -100.808

Lift-off point

35.420, -100.808

Record number

0703281930-01

Severe thunderstorms during the evening hours produced numerous tornadoes and large hail across the southern...central and eastern Texas panhandle. Heavy rains caused flash flooding in the eastern Texas panhandle during the late night and early morning hours. One man was killed by a tornado in the northeastern Texas panhandle and another person was injured.

A brief tornado occurred along State Highway 273 east southeast of Lefors. This tornado formed from the same storm that spawned the Jericho tornado. A semi truck heading west experienced a very strong northerly wind that forced him into...and left him straddling...the guardrail on the south side of the highway. East of this location...a tree suffered considerable damage to its large branches and offshoots of its trunk...several of which were snapped. There were no injuries reported.

Another brief tornado occurred along the northeast outskirts of Lefors. The most significant damage was to detached garages. One garage was completely destroyed...with debris from this building found in nearby trees. A travel trailer parked next to the garage was moved forty yards and destroyed. Large tree branches were snapped. |A second well constructed garage with steel roofing beams suffered damage. Roof paneling was peeled southward. At the north side of the garage was an interior room which suffered damage as the ground level wall mounted air conditioner was pulled inward into the room as the garage door failed and blew outward. Power poles were snapped at six foot level along with considerable fence damage. The north facing porch structure was damaged. A large antique car was moved approximately fifteen yards...and rotated cyclonically from its original position. Two large tanks...each weighing two thousand pounds...were moved seventy-five yards. No injuries were reported.

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

40 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:50 UTC, 40 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:16 UTC and running to 04:29 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 00:42 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.

Pampa (PPA), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:28 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.