EF1 tornado, Lutie to Fuller, Texas, May 5, 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

May 5, 2007

Touchdown

7:27 PM CDT (00:27 UTC)

Lifted

7:36 PM CDT (00:36 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

7.0 miles (11.2 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Collingsworth and Wheeler counties

Touchdown point

35.166, -100.051

Lift-off point

35.269, -100.103

Record number

0705051827-01

Severe thunderstorms produced large hail and tornadoes across the eastern Texas Panhandle during the evening and early morning hours. One tornado did cause extensive damage in Gray County and another tornado which traveled from northeastern Collingsworth County into southeastern Wheeler County caused damage to a stand of trees. Another tornado in Collingsworth County caused no damage. No injuries were reported from the storms.

The tornado remained over open country and the path length and path width were estimated. No damage or injuries were reported.

This tornado developed fourteen miles northeast of Lutie in northeastern Collingsworth County and tracked north northeast for about a half a mile before exiting Collingsworth County about fourteen and a half miles northeast of Lutie at 1828 CST. The tornado continued north northeast into Wheeler County before finally dissipating nine miles east northeast of Shamrock at 1836 CST. The tornado caused no damage in Collingsworth County. No injuries were reported. The damage was confirmed by a survey conducted by WFO OUN.

This tornado developed fourteen miles northeast of Lutie in extreme northeastern Collingsworth County and entered Wheeler County about eight miles east southeast of Shamrock at 1828 CST. The tornado then continued north northeast for about another six miles before dissipating nine miles east northeast of Shamrock. The tornado was rated an EF0 in extreme northeastern Collingsworth County...but was rated an EF1 in Wheeler County where a stand of trees was damaged. No injuries were reported. Damage was verified by WFO OUN.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:25 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:41 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:19 UTC and running to 03:01 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 20:05 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.

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

96 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 97 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.