EF2 tornado, Halletsville, Texas, March 31, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

March 31, 2007

Touchdown

4:45 AM CDT (09:45 UTC)

Lifted

4:50 AM CDT (09:50 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

Property damage

$75,000

County

Lavaca County

Touchdown point

29.389, -96.880

Lift-off point

29.385, -96.875

Record number

0703310345-01

In the early morning hours of March 31, both supercells and short bow echoes began to form along the north-south aligned cold front after it crossed the IH-35 corridor. Moving into the eastern portion of South Central Texas, these storms produced heavy rainfall, large hail, and two tornadoes.

The first tornado touched down near 0330 CST at the community of Williamsburg, approximately 4 miles south of Hallettsville along US77. It tracked from just west of US77 northward along the highway for almost a mile, crossing the highway and dissipating on the east side of US77. It was difficult to separate severe thunderstorm wind damage which preceded the tornado from the tornado damage itself. The tornado destroyed a barn near its initial touchdown with a level of damage indicating winds approaching 100 mph. This is consistent with NWS Doppler Radar indications of winds at or just above 90 mph in the Williamsburg area near 0331 CST. Doppler Radar at that time showed a comma-shaped echo with a hint of possible rotation on the north end of the comma, near Williamsburg. The tornado knocked over trees, with the debris pointed mostly toward the north or east. It also shoved a mobile home toward the east several yards. The tornado was rated an EF-1 on the enhanced Fujita Scale with winds estimated at 95 to 100 mph. The track was toward the north with a width of 100 yards and a path length of eight-tenths of a mile.

To the southeast of Hallettsville, and southeast of the first tornado, a second tornado touched down near 0345 CST. This was just off FM530 on Road 16C, near the community of Light Chapel. This tornado touched down just south of a mobile home and began moving toward the northeast. A father, along with two sons and a daughter, had just arrived home less than an hour before the touchdown and had fallen asleep when the storm struck. The father reported feeling a jolt that awakened him as severe thunderstorm winds ahead of the tornado struck the mobile home. He reported that it became quiet again and then the mobile home exploded as the tornado stuck. He and his three children were blown and tossed almost 150 feet, coming to rest on the top of the former south wall of his mobile home. Broken glass was everywhere, but, in spite of cuts and bruises, they took shelter in a small nearby roofless shack as hail continued to fall. He then walked, carrying an injured son and daughter, to a neighbor���s house to call for help. His truck, parked under an awning just south of the mobile home was rolled and crushed. Had he and his children arrived only a few minutes later at their home, they could easily have been killed. That all have recovered except for minor bruises and cuts can only be considered a miracle. The father���s comments were that it���s all okay ��� we���re okay. What was destroyed is just ���stuff.��� Based on the destroyed mobile home, which had been tied down, and the rolled and twisted metal frame, the tornado was rated EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Winds were estimated at 115 mph. The tornado path length was placed at four-tenths of a mile with a path width of 75 yards.

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

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

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 08:18 UTC and running to 11:53 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:49 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.

La Grange/Fayette Regional (3T5), 59 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), 117 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:46 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

6 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.