Tropical Storm Kim (1983) - Meteorological History

Meteorological History

On October 9, 1983, a weak tropical disturbance formed to the northeast of Truk. Over the next few days the disturbance moved towards the west and was a persistent feature on satellite imagery, however the disturbance showed no signs off developing and was expected to dissipate over the southern Philippines. On October 14, the disturbance moved into the Sulu Sea it lost its convective signature and was no longer identifiable as a Tropical disturbance, however the next day the system moved into the South China Sea and rapidly developed into a Tropical depression. At this time the southwest monsoon was well developed in the South China Sea and provided a favourable environment for further development of the depression.

A Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert was then released on the Tropical Depression, early on October 16, as Kim was expected to intensify into a Tropical Storm within 24 hours. The depression then intensified further and according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) attained Tropical storm intensity later that day at 1200 UTC. However the Tropical Storm was not named Kim until six hours later when the JTWC started issuing advisories on the Tropical Storm. This came as Tropical storm Kim reached both its 1-min and 10-min peek winds of 75 km/h (45 mph). Five hours later Kim made landfall on the coast of Vietnam. The JTWC then stopped issuing advisories early the next day as Kim's circulation had rapidly weakened over land. Kim was then downgraded to a Tropical depression the next morning whilst it crossed the border from Vietnam into Cambodia, six hours later as Kim lost some more of its organisation it was downgraded to a Tropical disturbance. Over the next couple of days the remnants of Kim continued to move across Indochina with a lot of convection, while visual satellite imagery was showing indications that a mid to low level circulation center was apparent.

A Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert was then issued for the remnants of Kim during the afternoon of October 18, when it became apparent that the remnants of Kim would move into the Andaman Sea and that regeneration was considered possible. Early the next day, the JTWC started to reissue warnings on Kim as it regenerated into a Tropical Depression. At this stage Kim was expected to move across the southern tip of Burma and intensify further in the Bay of Bengal. Whilst Kim moved across southern Burma as expected, it never moved into the Bay of Bengal, instead Kim moved northwards along the coast of Burma, parallel to the Arakan Mountain Range and gradually weakened. The JTWC issued their last warning on Kim at 1800z on October 20 as it was dissipating over the Arakan Mountains.