Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2007

EF2 tornado, Currie to Richland, Texas, September 5, 2007

From Currie to Richland, this EF2 tornado ran 6.1 miles across Navarro County on September 5, 2007, touching down at 7:47 AM CDT and reaching 80 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $40,000 of property damage.

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 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.

The record

Rating
EF2
Date
September 5, 2007
Touchdown
7:47 AM CDT (12:47 UTC)
Lifted
8:03 AM CDT (13:03 UTC)
On the ground
16 minutes
Path length
6.1 miles (9.8 km)
Path width
80 yards (73 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$40,000
County
Navarro County
Touchdown point
31.843, -96.437
Lift-off point
31.930, -96.418
Record number
0709050647-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level low lingered in the area creating conditions ripe for flooding. Several instances of flash flooding were reported as a large area of rain persisted through mid-morning.

This tornado formed roughly two miles east-southeast of the first tornado. Damage was first noted along CR 2410 just north of the Freestone County line. Trees were uprooted and trunks and large limbs snapped as the tornado moved northeast. A barn was destroyed roughly one mile west of Interstate 45, and two metal transmission line towers were damaged 1/2 miles west of the interstate. The tornado dissipated shortly after crossing Interstate 45.

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

The warnings

15 minutes of warning. NWS FWD issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:32 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:32 UTC13:00 UTCTornado WarningFWD
12:57 UTC13:30 UTCTornado WarningFWD
13:06 UTC16:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningFWD

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. The outlook in force was issued at 05:31 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

0.8 hours before the tornado, 133 km from the path. September 5, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-09-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 151 joules per kilogram, CIN -39, lifted condensation level 553 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 2007-09-05The 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 34 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.193958Sfc1 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
151 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-39 J/kg
Surface CAPE
191 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
553 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
113 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

11.2 hours after it, 133 km from the path. September 6, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-09-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1939 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 1087 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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 2007-09-06The 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 77 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1939 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2914 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1087 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
104 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Dallas/Ft Worth radar (KFWS), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:46 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
12:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Ese RichlandNavarro, TXPOSSIBLE TORNADO 4 ESE OF RICHLAND WITH BILLBOARD AND POWER LINES BLOWN DOWN...TREES UPROOTED...50 YARD WIDE DAMAGE PATH IN TREE TOPS ALONG INTERSTATE 45. TIME ESTIMATED.
14:20 UTCFLASH FLOODCorsicanaNavarro, TXNUMEROUS LOW WATER CROSSINGS FLOODED
14:25 UTCFLASH FLOODMalakoffHenderson, TXWATER OVER THE ROAD ON CITY STREETS IN MALAKOFF

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 September 5, 2007

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 57:42 AM CDTEF0Navarro, TX0.840
September 511:40 AM CDTEF1Wood, TX1.050$5,000
September 512:54 PM MDTEF0Caribou, ID7.550
September 53:10 PM CDTEF1Bowie, TX3.050$10,000

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.