Typhoon Maggie
Direct Hit on Hong Kong 7th June 1999.

(c)1999 C.B. Smith

HKO: Maggie page, Track of Maggie, Maggie over HK.

This is the final update of the Typhoon Maggie animated GIF, as all information used for plotting was downloaded from JTWC for consistancy, however, JTWC failed to issue further warnings after Maggie moved South into the South China Sea and re-intensified, generating winds of 80 knots, and moved back North, causing loss of life and tremendous destruction, and maintaining Tropical Storm intensity for almost a full day after landfall!

Signal Summary::

STAND-BY SIGNAL NUMBER 1 HOISTED AT 23:45 HKT SAT 5 JUN 1999 
STRONG WIND SIGNAL NUMBER 3 HOISTED AT 14:15 HKT SUN 6 JUN 1999
NORTHWEST GALE OR STORM SIGNAL NUMBER 8 HOISTED AT 00:30 HKT MON 7 JUN 1999
GALE OR STORM INCREASING SIGNAL NUMBER 9 HOISTED AT 02:45 HKT MON 7 JUN 1999 
NORTHEAST GALE OR STORM SIGNAL NUMBER 8 HOISTED AT 05:45 HKT MON 7 JUN 1999
STRONG WIND SIGNAL NUMBER 3 HOISTED AT 10:30 HKT MON 7 JUN 1999 
ALL SIGNALS LOWERED AT 14:45 HKT MON 7 JUN 1999
STAND-BY SIGNAL NUMBER 1 HOISTED AT 22:30 HKT MON 7 JUN 1999
STRONG WIND SIGNAL NUMBER 3 HOISTED AT 00:45 HKT TUE 8 JUN 1999
ALL SIGNALS LOWERED AT 13:45 HKT TUE 8 JUN 1999

Summary: Typhoon Maggie crossed the coast well to the East of Hong Kong during the night of the 6th - 7th June, it then tracked along the coast, and passed directly over parts of the Hong Kong area between 4am and 5am HK time the morning of the 7th of June.

Strong gales were experieced in Hong Kong throughout the early morning hours, however, Maggie had quickly weakened after crossing the coast, and had lost most of it's fury by the time it passed Hong Kong.

Here is an extract of an email I sent to my brother Carl in Australia, shortly after Maggie's passage across Hong Kong, Mon, 7 Jun 1999 22:50:46 +0800:-

"The HKO gave a detailed rundown of the exact track of Maggie as it crossed HK territory. It passed over Sai Kung, then directly over Sha Tin, then East Kowloon, then between HK Island and Lantau, then directly over Cheung Chau, then it skirted around Lantau Island to the South before going directly West towards Macau. It therefore took a sort of S bend through a lot of the Territory as the main component of its movement was North to South.

"So in the middle of the night when it went dead calm for 15-20 minutes (no light in my new watch) the very eye must have been passing over us. It mustn't have been a clear eye, because it never stopped raining it just went dead quiet after all the noise and clattering and banging. Then just as suddenly it all began again and I went back to sleep at about 05:00. When I got up at 07:15 there was hardly any wind.

"Damage was limited to a few trees and a spectacular peeling of the scaffolding from a new skyscraper which blocked one of our major roads for a few hours. No known casualties, only a few minor injuries reported. Some of the public transport ferries didn't re-start until 17:30 so all schools had the day off and most workers had at least a half day off.

"At 21:30 tonight I was out at Tin Shui Wai in the far West of HK's New Territories and the wind was still strong enough to make walking difficult and was very gusty. Here though, it is calm. The rain however continues and will for the next several days as the last remains of Maggie's cloud bands fall to earth.

"Well, that's about the end of Maggie.
"Hooroo for now.

And a more recent email, Mon, 7 Jun 1999 23:11:41 +0800:-

"The HKO has just hoisted Stand by Signal 1 as Maggie appears to be regenerating and is forecast to head this way.

And another email, Wed, 8 Jun 1999 22:23:52 +0800:-

"You should see all the flak JTWC has been getting for leaving their forecasting for Maggie as a final warning when every other meteorological office in all of Asia had warned that it had re-intensified back into a Tropical Storm. The WXHK forum has been full of flames!

And still more recently, Wed, 9 Jun 1999 08:58:24 +0800:-

"The JTWC is coming in for official flak now because of the loss of life and tremendous destruction caused by Maggie after the re-intensification. JTWC just left a final warning showing that a weak tropical depression would drift along parallel to the coast and fizzle out and never bothered to update. What it actually did was move south over the SCS, rapidly intensified to 80 Knot winds at the centre and then moved North where it maintained Tropical Storm intensity for almost a full day after landfall. But I guess we are a long way from JTWC!

This page was last updated 07/02/08 at 09:22:22 Hong Kong Time

hits to this map since 08:00 on 7/6/99

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