Typhoon Kai-Tak (06W)

Threatened Hong Kong from 6th until 9th July 2000.

Current Tropical cyclone activity world-wide (if any) may be found on the links below this line.

Click on the Thumbnail image at left for a Satellite view of Typhoon Kai-Tak at 03:00 on 8th July HKT.  At that moment a small cloud band was bringing a brief thunderstorm to the New Territories and a much denser one was bringing death and destruction to North-East Luzon in the Philippines.  Deep convection was found mainly around the periphery leaving a "double-eye" appearance near Kai-Tak's centre where there was very little deep convection.  Typhoon Kirogi can also be seen at the top of the image near the coast of Honshu, Japan where it left 5 dead.

A Low Pressure Area had already brought unsettled weather to most of the South China Sea for many days when a Tropical Depression formed during the early morning of 4th July 2000 just off the West coast of Luzon in the Northern Philippines.
All agencies were predicting that this storm would move North East and follow concurrent storm Typhoon Kirogi towards Japan.  However Tropical Storm 06W, apparently having a mind of its own, knew better and meandered about for days just north of Luzon in the Bashi Channel.
By the morning of 8th July there were more than 700,000 people homeless and 26 dead in the Philippines from the effects of the storm that had now been named Typhoon Kai-Tak.  The town of LAOG in northern LUZON has received almost its entire average monthly rainfall average in 48h: up to 06utc the 08th they recorded 432mm.

After remaining virtually stationary or performing small cyclonic loops in the area North West of Luzon for a long period, Kai-Tak suddenly moved North to Taiwan. Here is a report extracted from CNN:

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- As a killer typhoon left Japan, another one hit Taiwan Sunday morning, cutting power, shutting down airports, and causing a grisly car accident that left one dead.
In southern Taiwan, power outages in Taitung city and Pingtung county affected more than 3,000 homes, while authorities canceled flights, trains, and boats as the typhoon moved north at 17 mph.
Kai Tak came ashore packing with winds of up to 93 mph, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said.
In southern Pingtung county, one person died and five others were injured when their cars rammed into each other at a coastal highway. Officials said visibility was poor and the road slippery.
Airports in Taitung, as well as the outlying Green Island and Orchid Island, were closed. Highways near Taitung were strewn with soil, tree branches and leaves.
In the beach resort of Kenting many residents and tourists ignored the official warning to stay indoors. They instead headed to the coast to watch the waves crash against the sea walls.
Early Sunday, Prime Minister Tang Fei urged extra caution.

End of CNN report

Other reports said that Kai-Tak left a final death-toll of 42 in the Philippines.

All of the maps linked to this page were drawn by my brother, Carl Smith, on his ancient 4Mb Macintosh.  Check his Source Acknowledgements page for full credits regarding information sources and his Copyright and Disclaimer page for legal matters.

Typhoon Signal 1 (Stand by) was hoisted 2000-07-06 at 15:50
All Typhoon Signals were lowered 2000-07-09 at 07:00

Animation Part 1 from 031930Z until 060300Z (03:30 4th July until 11:00 6th July HKT) [241K]

Animation Part 2 from 060600Z until 080300Z (14:00 6th July until 11:00 8th July HKT) [229K]

Animation Part 3 from 080600Z until 081500Z (14:00 8th July until 23:00 9th July HKT) [187K]
This is the final update of this serries of animations.

Full list of positions. [from Tropical Cyclone Centre.]

HK TC Signal Probability Forecast

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This page was commenced on 8/7/00 and was last updated on 07/02/08 at 09:07:02 Hong Kong Time (UTC +8)

8/7/00

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