Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 2023

Unrated tornado, Lautz, Texas, July 7, 2023

This Unrated tornado ran 0.2 miles across Sherman County on July 7, 2023, touching down at 5:25 PM 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 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 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. Unratedthis tornado

    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
Unrated
Date
July 7, 2023
Touchdown
5:25 PM CDT (22:25 UTC)
Lifted
5:27 PM CDT (22:27 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Sherman County
Touchdown point
36.179, -101.997
Lift-off point
36.179, -101.994
Record number
2307071625-01

What the Weather Service recorded

During the late afternoon of the 7th a line of thunderstorms developed in eastern New Mexico and proceeded to move east into and across the combined Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles. The strongest and most severe of these storms mainly impacted the TX Panhandle as it progressed. Several severe wind gusts of 60 to 80 mph winds were measured by ground stations across the area. Some of the strongest parts of the storms even produced some heavy rainfall.

Tornado was captured on video by a storm chaser. The video showed there were twin tornadoes from the same circulation in very close proximity briefly. They remained in open county and didn't encounter any damage indicators.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:52 UTC and running to 01:04 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
05:09 UTC10:27 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchAMA
19:52 UTC01:04 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchAMA
22:09 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
22:48 UTC03:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryAMA
22:49 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA

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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

10.4 hours before the tornado, 109 km from the path. July 7, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2023-07-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1267 joules per kilogram, CIN -292, lifted condensation level 1190 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 2023-07-07The 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 318 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
1267 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-292 J/kg
Surface CAPE
955 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1190 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
318 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
409 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

1.6 hours after it, 109 km from the path. July 8, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2023-07-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1475 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 1879 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 2023-07-08The 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 45 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 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
1475 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1701 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1879 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
128 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Amarillo radar (KAMA), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:26 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
20:35 UTCTSTM WND GST 643 Sw DalhartHartley, TXFrom 1535CDT through 1550CDT the ASOS in Dalhart gusted 58 to 64 mph from a line of thunderstorms moving through.
21:35 UTCTSTM WND GST 643 Sw DalhartHartley, TXCorrects previous tstm wnd gst report from 3 SW Dalhart. From 1635CDT through 1650CDT the ASOS in Dalhart gusted 58 to 64 mph from a line of thunderstorms moving through.
22:25 UTCTORNADO9 Nne CactusSherman, TXVideo of tornado looking west from a few miles southeast of Stratford. Tornado was intermittently on the ground for about 2 minutes.
22:38 UTCTSTM WND GST 619 Nne SunraySherman, TXMesonet station near Sunray measured multiple wind gusts between 58 and 61 mph between 1738CDT and 1747CDT.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 7, 2023

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 74:35 AM CDTEF1Woodward, OK0.550
July 71:30 PM CDTUnratedMcIntosh, ND0.240
July 71:37 PM CDTUnratedLaMoure, ND0.240
July 72:00 PM CDTUnratedLaMoure, ND0.350

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.