Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF0 tornado, Buna, Texas, October 17, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Jasper County on October 17, 2007, touching down at 10:32 AM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
October 17, 2007
Touchdown
10:32 AM CDT (15:32 UTC)
Lifted
10:34 AM CDT (15:34 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Crop damage
$2,000
County
Jasper County
Touchdown point
30.410, -94.010
Lift-off point
30.410, -94.010
Record number
0710170932-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An isolated tornado touched down in southeast Texas, causing minor damage.

Trained spotters observed a tornado pass over Highway 96, blowing a few trees down.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:37 UTC16:00 UTCTornado WarningLCH
15:54 UTC16:30 UTCTornado WarningLCH
16:58 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WatchLCH

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:34 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 air that afternoon

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.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

3.5 hours before the tornado, 84 km from the path. October 17, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2007-10-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1879 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 496 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 2007-10-17The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 128 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1879 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1878 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
496 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
128 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
179 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
6.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

8.5 hours after it, 84 km from the path. October 18, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2007-10-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1871 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 677 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 2007-10-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 117 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1871 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2603 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
677 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
117 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
6.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Orange (ORG), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
15:03 UTC78.878.8130° 14 kt191006.8-VCTSRA
15:23 UTC78.878.8130° 14 kt231006.4-TSRA
15:43 UTC78.878.8140° 12 kt201006.1-VCTSRA
16:05 UTC78.878.8150° 15 kt231006.1-TSRA
16:23 UTC78.877160° 16 kt231006.8-RA
16:43 UTC80.678.8150° 13 kt191006.1VCTS
17:06 UTC80.678.8170° 16 kt231005.8
17:24 UTC80.677160° 18 kt241006.1VCTS

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

The radar

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:34 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
15:29 UTCTORNADO4 Sw BunaJasper, TXREPORT RELAYED THROUGH TV 12 IN BEAUMONT.
15:30 UTCTORNADO8 Sw BunaJasper, TXTHIS IS A CORRECTION OF THE TIME OF REPORT. THE PREVIOUS REPORT HAD A TIME OF 1029 AM. CHANNEL 12 HAD JUST GOTTEN OFF THE PHONE WITH THE SPOTTER WHEN THEY CALLED OUR OFFICE. THIS TORNADO WAS NOT SURVEYED.
15:50 UTCTORNADO8 Sw BunaJasper, TXREPORT RELAYED THROUGH TV 12 IN BEAUMONT. THIS IS A CORRECTION FROM THE PREVIOUS REPORT WHICH HAD THE EVENT TIME AS 1029 AM.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of October 17, 2007

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 174:05 PM CDTEF0Johnson, MO0.125
October 175:14 PM CDTEF0Choctaw, OK0.150
October 175:45 PM CDTEF1Washington Parish, LA0.225$30,000
October 175:46 PM CDTEF0Lawrence, MO10.1150$500,000
October 175:55 PM CDTEF1Washington Parish, LA0.225$15,000
October 176:07 PM CDTEF1Lincoln, AR5.44401$200,000
October 177:30 PM CDTEF1Jefferson Davis, MS0.3100$100,000
October 177:35 PM CDTEF1Greene, MO2.8100$150,000
October 178:10 PM CDTEF1Forrest, MS1.62001$100,000
October 1710:03 PM CDTEF0Holmes, MS2.425
October 1711:35 PM CDTEF0Laclede, MO0.135$10,000
October 1711:55 PM CDTEF0Monroe, MO4.040
October 1711:55 PM CDTEF0Callaway, MO0.530$50,000
October 1712:05 AM CDTEF2Monroe, MO4.1902$50,000
October 1712:07 AM CDTEF0Monroe, MO1.750

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.