EF0 tornado, Cotton Center to Fieldton, Texas, September 27, 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

September 27, 2007

Touchdown

5:45 PM CDT (22:45 UTC)

Lifted

5:55 PM CDT (22:55 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

3.1 miles (5.1 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Crop damage

$15,000

Counties

Hale and Lamb counties

Touchdown point

34.000, -102.052

Lift-off point

33.989, -102.099

Record number

0709271645-01

Isolated severe thunderstorms impacted portions of the west Texas South Plains region during the late afternoon and evening hours of the 27th. Severe storms over Childress, Cottle, Floyd, and King Counties produced large hail up to the size of golfballs and damaging winds. ||An isolated storm rapidly developed near an outflow boundary over western Hale County. This storm quickly produced a persistent and highly visible tornado that moved west-northwestward across farm land between Cotton Center (Hale County) and Corry (Lamb County). Only minor agricultural damage was reported.

At 16:45 CST the Federal Aviation Administration relayed a pilot report of a tornado just west of Cotton Center. The tornado had formed along an outflow boundary beneath a rapidly developing severe thunderstorm. The highly visible landspout-type tornado was observed by many officials and the general public from portions of at least three counties as it moved west-northwestward over farm land until it dissipated just south of Corry (extreme eastern Lamb County) at 16:55 CST. ||An eyewitness reported that the tornado briefly broke-up as it crossed Texas Farm to Market Road 37 near the Hale and Lamb County line, then reformed as it crossed into Lamb County. Although no structural damage occurred, farmers reported that the track of the tornado was visible through cotton and wheat fields.

At 16:45 CST the Federal Aviation Administration relayed a pilot report of a tornado just west of Cotton Center (western Hale County). The tornado had formed along an outflow boundary beneath a rapidly developing severe thunderstorm. The highly visible landspout-type tornado was observed by many officials and the general public from portions of at least three counties as it moved west-northwestward over farm land until it dissipated just south of Corry (extreme eastern Lamb County) at 16:55 CST. ||An eyewitness reported that the tornado briefly broke-up as it crossed Texas Farm to Market Road 37 near the Hale and Lamb County line, then reformed as it crossed into Lamb County. Although no structural damage occurred, farmers reported that the track of the tornado was visible through cotton and wheat fields.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:49 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.

The Lubbock radar (KLBB), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:44 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

1 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.