User:Terryfirut/Typhoon Kong-rey (Queenie)

Typhoon Kong-rey (Queenie)
In late September 2018, a tropical disturbance formed in the waters near Pohnpei Island in the Federated States of Micronesia. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center also gave the storm, Invest 94W, a low chance of development. Over the next couple of days, the system moved westward and organized into a tropical depression on September 27, and the JMA initiated advisories on the storm, while the JTWC issued a TCFA. On September 28, the JTWC designated the system as 30W, while the JMA issued a gale warning for the system. As Tropical Depression 30W continued strengthening, the system became a tropical storm and was named Kong-rey by the JMA. On September 29, the system moved further west, found itself in favorable conditions for strengthening, and became a tropical storm. Later that day, Kong-rey strengthened into a severe tropical storm, and on September 30, the storm attained typhoon status at 03:00 UTC. Kong-rey continued strengthening, and at 18:00 UTC on October 1, Kong-rey became a Category 4-equivalent super typhoon. Early on October 2, Kong-rey strengthened into a Category 5 super typhoon. Affected by vertical wind shear, low ocean heat content and decreasing sea surface temperatures, the storm gradually weakened to a Category 3 typhoon on October 3 while undergoing an eyewall replacement cycle. Increased vertical wind shear and lower sea surface temperatures hampered Kong-rey's strength, and Kong-rey was downgraded to a tropical storm on October 4. Early on October 6, Kong-rey made landfall in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province in South Korea as a high-end tropical storm, and later on the same day, Kong-rey transitioned into an extratropical cyclone, while impacting southern Hokkaido, such as areas near Hakodate.

As of October 2018, 3 people have been killed by the storm, including 2 people from South Korea. Damage nationwide totaled at ₩54.9 billion (US$48.5 million). Although Kong-Rey did not make a direct landfall on Kyushu and Shikoku, its outer rainbands affected the two islands. At an area in Shikoku, rain accumlated to 300 mm. In Nagasaki, more than 12,000 families lost power; in Fukuoka Prefecture, a person died because of the rain. Agricultural damage in Okinawa and Miyazaki Prefecture were about JP¥13.99 billion (US$123 million).

Unrelated to Kong-rey, Hurricane Walaka was a Category 5 hurricane at the same time Kong-rey intensified to Category 5 super typhoon intensity, marking the first time since 2005 when two tropical cyclones of Category 5 strength existed simultaneously in the Northern Hemisphere.