EF0 tornado, Smyer, Texas, May 7, 2008

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

May 7, 2008

Touchdown

11:50 AM CDT (16:50 UTC)

Lifted

11:52 AM CDT (16:52 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.2 miles (1.9 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Hockley County

Touchdown point

33.643, -102.192

Lift-off point

33.642, -102.171

Record number

0805071050-01

Thunderstorms developed beneath the core of an upper level storm system as it translated eastward over the west Texas South Plains before midday on the 7th. ||Some of these storms initiated along a weak pre-existing low-level boundary that was oriented west-northwest to east-southeast over portions of Hockley and Lubbock Counties. With very steep lapse rates and strong low-level instability along this boundary, storm updrafts provided enough stretching along the boundary to result in at least one tornado in eastern Hockley County. The storms then continued eastward producing up to one inch diameter hail over the southern half of Lubbock County.||The same complex of storms then moved eastward through the early afternoon hours. An additional cell strengthened to severe levels in King County and produced severe wind gusts.||West to northwesterly gradient winds increased in the wake of the departing storm system aloft and the convective activity. These winds, possibly enhanced by momentum transfer near weak convective showers, resulted in a period of high winds near Jayton (Kent County).||No damage was reported from any of the severe weather impacts across the west Texas South Plains on the 7th.

A rope-shaped tornado was witnessed by several people north of Smyer just before 11:00 CST. The tornado reportedly remained in open fields near the Spade Ranch north of Texas Highway 114, and generally west of Farm to Market Road 168. Although the tornado may have actually crossed Farm to Market Road 168 before it dissipated, no damage was reported.

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.

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 16:07 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), 34 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:51 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 2008 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.