Typhoon Fung-wong (2008) - Meteorological History

Meteorological History

On July 20, 2008, a tropical disturbance formed to the south-east of Okinawa, Japan. Later that day the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, started to issue tropical weather outlooks on the disturbance. At this time the JTWC assessed its chances of forming into a significant tropical cyclone within 24 hours as "Poor". Over the next few days as the disturbance slowly moved south west the JTWC kept assessing the disturbance chances of forming into a significant tropical cyclone as poor due to the disturbance's transition from a cold core to a warm core. Late on July 23 the JTWC upgraded the disturbances chances of becoming a significant tropical cyclone to fair. This came after the Japan Meteorological Agency had designated the disturbance as a minor tropical depression.

Early the next day the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) designated the disturbance as a tropical depression and assigned the local name of Igme to the depression. Later that morning the JTWC issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert as they upgraded the disturbance's chances of becoming a significant tropical cyclone to "Good". At the same time the JMA designated the depression as a full tropical depression. Later that day the JTWC upgraded the disturbance to a tropical depression and designated it as 09W. During the morning of July 25 both the JTWC and the JMA upgraded the depression to a tropical storm, with the JMA assigning the name Fung-wong to the storm. During that day Fung-wong intensified slowly with the JMA reporting early the next day that Fungwong had become a severe tropical storm. Later on July 26 the JTWC upgraded Fungwong to typhoon status, whilst the JMA were reporting that Fung-wong was still a severe tropical storm. The next morning the JMA upgraded Fung-wong to typhoon status, and then later that day reported that Fung-wong had reached its 10-minute peak wind speeds of 75 knots (139 km/h), (85 mph, 140 km/h). Fung-wong also reached its 1-minute sustained peak wind speeds of 95 knots (176 km/h), (110 mph, 175 km/h) which made Fung-wong a category two typhoon as it moved towards Taiwan.

Late on July 27 Fungwong made landfall on Taiwan near the border of Hualien County and Taitung County. Early the next day, as Fungwong moved towards the west through Taiwan, the JMA downgraded Fungwong to a severe tropical storm as it moved through Changhua County towards the Taiwan Strait. Fung-wong then moved into the Taiwan Strait later that morning, before being downgraded that afternoon to a Tropical Storm by the JTWC. Fungwong then made its second landfall, this time on south-east China. Later that day the JTWC issued its final advisory on Fung-wong, as the JTWC expected Fung-wong to dissipate over land during the next 12 hours. However the JMA continued to issue advisories on Fung-wong as it moved across China downgrading it to a Tropical Storm early on July 29. The JMA then kept issuing advisories on Fung-wong until early that afternoon when they downgraded Fungwong to a tropical depression and issued their final advisory. However the JMA kept issuing warnings on the depression until it dissipated the next day.