Typhoon Kalmaegi has made its final landfall along the coast of northern Vietnam, after swiping a part of southern China. As of Wednesday morning (local time), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center has issued its final warning for this system.
(MORE: Kalmaegi News | Expert Analysis | Hurricane Central)
Sustained winds reached 56 mph with gusts to 76 mph on Vietnam's Bach Long Vi Island in the Gulf of Tonkin as the typhoon passed by Tuesday. On the Vietnamese mainland, winds have gusted as high as 60 mph around Lang Son, near the Chinese border. Over 4 inches of rain had fallen in Lang Son as well as Nam Dinh as of 2100 GMT Tuesday (4 a.m. Wednesday Vietnamese time).
The typhoon made landfall in Quang Ninh province of extreme northeastern Vietnam, about 120 miles east-northeast of Hanoi, at approximately 1600 GMT (11 p.m. Vietnamese time) Tuesday.
Earlier, Kalmaegi arrived on southern China's Leizhou Peninsula and Hainan Island Tuesday morning, local time, as a category 1 equivalent typhoon. Storm surge sent seawater into Haikou, a city of 2 million people on the northern end of Hainan Island.
Winds gusted over 60 mph in Haikou, and the barometric pressure plunged to 961 millibars in the city as Kalmaegi's eye passed just to the north. Up to a foot of rain was reported elsewhere on parts of Hainan Island.
Across the strait on the mainland, Zhanjiang reported a peak gust of 94 mph.
The center tracked well south of Hong Kong. However, Hong Kong was buffeted by strong winds and bouts of rain.
(FORECAST: Hanoi | Hong Kong)
Winds gusted as high as 68 mph at Hong Kong International Airport shortly after midnight local time Tuesday (noon EDT Monday in the U.S.), even as the center of Kalmaegi was about 200 miles southwest of the territory and moving away. The island of Cheung Chau reported a 76-mph gust Tuesday morning local time.
Rainfall there was not exceptional, with generally 1 to 3 inches reported across Hong Kong.
Typhoon Kalmaegi's fast forward speed (almost 20 mph) and moderate wind shear kept a lid on what otherwise might have been a rapidly developing typhoon.
Philippines Impact
Typhoon Kalmaegi, known as Typhoon Luis in the Philippines, zipped west across the northern part of Luzon, the northern of the three largest islands in the Philippines, on Sunday. It made the roughly 100-mile trek across the island in approximately 6 hours as it sped westward at 15 to 20 mph.(MORE: Typhoon Kalmaegi Hits the Philippines)
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated its winds at about 80 mph as it approached landfall. However, there were no winds nearly that high at any of the fixed ground observation stations in the region. Aparri, on the north-facing coast of northern Luzon, reported a sustained wind of 40 mph, which is minimal tropical storm force.
Rain, on the other hand, was prolific despite the fast westward motion of the cyclone. The city of Dagupan, north of Manila, reported 398 mm (15.67 inches) of rain in the 24-hour period ending at 8 a.m. local time Monday (8 p.m. EDT Sunday in the U.S.)
JTWC downgraded Kalmaegi to a tropical storm as it exited the Philippines, but the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Philippine national weather agency maintained it as a minimal typhoon with maximum sustained winds around 75 mph. JTWC quickly upgraded Kalmaegi back to a typhoon a few hours later.
It had been almost a month since there had been a typhoon in the Western Pacific. The last typhoon to impact the Philippines before Kalmaegi was Typhoon Rammasun (Glenda) back in July.
Kalmaegi, which means seagull in Korean, formed Sept. 10 and strengthened into a tropical storm Sept. 12.
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