Tropical Storm Zita (1997)
Encyclopedia
Severe Tropical Storm Zita was a short-lived tropical cyclone
that killed seven people throughout southern China. Originating from a tropical disturbance over the South China Sea
on August 19, Zita tracked westward as it quickly strengthened within a region of light wind shear
, attaining winds of 140 km/h (85 mph) as it made landfall
along the Leizhou Peninsula
early on August 22. Maintaining this intensity, the storm made a second landfall in northern Vietnam later that day before rapidly weakening over land. The remnants of Zita were last noted over extreme northwestern Vietnam on August 24.
Although a relatively weak system, Tropical Storm Zita caused significant damage in Southern China. There, seven people were known to have been killed by the storm and damage reached $433 million (1997 USD
). However, a report from Dartmouth College
states that 345 people were killed by the storm. In Vietnam, significantly less damage took place; no fatalities were reported and losses reached $5 million (1997 USD).
which was first identified by the JTWC on August 19, 1997, roughly 555 km (345 mi) west of the northern Philippines
. By August 20, a low-level circulation developed and deep convection
persisted around the center. Situated within an easterly flow, the system tracked westward towards the southern Chinese
island of Hainan
as it strengthened. Later that day, a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert
was issued for the disturbance; around the same time, the Japan Meteorological Agency
(JMA) began monitoring the system as a tropical depression. Hours later, the JTWC classified the depression as Tropical Storm Zita, the 15th named storm
of the season. Early the next day, the JMA followed suit and upgraded Zita to a tropical storm according to ten-minute sustained wind standards. Additionally, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration
issued a few advisories on the system as it existed within their area of responsibility, during which time it was given the local Filipino name Luming.
Situated in a region with little to no wind shear
, the storm's outflow
quickly became established and banding features
wrapped around the periphery. Despite Zita's proximity to China's coastline, it was able to intensify into a typhoon by August 22, attaining winds winds of 120 km/h (75 mph), equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale. Strengthening continued until Zita made landfall
along the Leizhou Peninsula
around 0600 UTC
with winds of 140 km/h (85 mph). At landfall, the JMA assessed the storm to have been slightly weaker, estimating it to have peaked as a severe tropical storm with ten-minute sustained winds of 100 km/h (65 mph) and a barometric pressure of 980 mbar
(hPa
; 28.94 inHg). Although the storm moved over land, it maintained its intensity as it entered the Gulf of Tonkin
. Around 2200 UTC, Zita made its final landfall near Cẩm Phả, Vietnam
. Rapid weakening ensued as it moved further inland. Early on August 23, the JTWC issued their final advisory on the storm as it weakened to a tropical depression. However, the JMA continued to monitor Zita until it dissipated early on August 24 over extreme northwestern Vietnam.
, triggering widespread flooding and landslides. At least seven are known to have been killed in the province and damage reached $433 million (1997 USD). However, a report from Dartmouth College
states that 345 people were killed by the storm. Roughly An estimated 55,170 km2 (21,300 mi2) of land was affected by the storm-induced floods, home to roughly 5.65 million people. In the city of Zhanjiang
alone, 36,000 homes were destroyed and 80% of the coastal crops were lost. Throughout the Leizhou Peninsula, 332,650 hectare
s (822,000 acre
s) of farmland were damaged by the storm.
In Hong Kong
, the outer bands of Zita brought significant rainfall, measured at 326.7 mm (12.9 in), which triggered 19 landslides. High winds downed power lines, leaving an estimated 1,900 people without power at the height of the storm. Throughout the city, damage amounted to HK$
550,000 ($70,747 USD). In Vietnam, the storm produced widespread heavy rainfall, leaving $5 million (1997 USD) in damage but no fatalities. Zita's remnants also brought significant rainfall to parts of neighboring Laos
.
Tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones strengthen when water evaporated from the ocean is released as the saturated air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapor...
that killed seven people throughout southern China. Originating from a tropical disturbance over the South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
on August 19, Zita tracked westward as it quickly strengthened within a region of light wind shear
Wind shear
Wind shear, sometimes referred to as windshear or wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere...
, attaining winds of 140 km/h (85 mph) as it made landfall
Landfall (meteorology)
Landfall is the event of a tropical cyclone or a waterspout coming onto land after being over water. When a waterspout makes landfall it is reclassified as a tornado, which can then cause damage inland...
along the Leizhou Peninsula
Leizhou Peninsula
The Leizhou Peninsula or Leizhou Bandao is a peninsula in the southernmost part of Guangdong province in southern China.-Geography:Leizhou Peninsula is the third largest peninsula in China with an area of of circa 8,500 square kilometer located on the southwestern end of Guangdong, with the Gulf...
early on August 22. Maintaining this intensity, the storm made a second landfall in northern Vietnam later that day before rapidly weakening over land. The remnants of Zita were last noted over extreme northwestern Vietnam on August 24.
Although a relatively weak system, Tropical Storm Zita caused significant damage in Southern China. There, seven people were known to have been killed by the storm and damage reached $433 million (1997 USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
). However, a report from Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
states that 345 people were killed by the storm. In Vietnam, significantly less damage took place; no fatalities were reported and losses reached $5 million (1997 USD).
Meteorological history
Severe Tropical Storm Zita originated from a tropical disturbance over the South China SeaSouth China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
which was first identified by the JTWC on August 19, 1997, roughly 555 km (345 mi) west of the northern Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. By August 20, a low-level circulation developed and deep convection
Atmospheric convection
Atmospheric convection is the result of a parcel-environment instability, or temperature difference, layer in the atmosphere. Different lapse rates within dry and moist air lead to instability. Mixing of air during the day which expands the height of the planetary boundary layer leads to...
persisted around the center. Situated within an easterly flow, the system tracked westward towards the southern Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
island of Hainan
Hainan
Hainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, of its land mass is Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
as it strengthened. Later that day, a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert
Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert
A Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert is a bulletin released by the U.S. Navy-operated Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Honolulu, Hawaii or the Naval Maritime Forecast Center in Norfolk, Virginia, warning of the possibility of a tropical cyclone forming from a tropical disturbance that has been...
was issued for the disturbance; around the same time, the Japan Meteorological Agency
Japan Meteorological Agency
The or JMA, is the Japanese government's weather service. Charged with gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Japan, it is a semi-autonomous part of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport...
(JMA) began monitoring the system as a tropical depression. Hours later, the JTWC classified the depression as Tropical Storm Zita, the 15th named storm
Tropical cyclone naming
Tropical cyclones have officially been named since 1945 and are named for a variety of reasons, which include to facilitate communications between forecasters and the public when forecasts, watches, and warnings are issued. Names also reduce confusion about what storm is being described, as more...
of the season. Early the next day, the JMA followed suit and upgraded Zita to a tropical storm according to ten-minute sustained wind standards. Additionally, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration
Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration is a Philippine national institution dedicated to provide flood and typhoon warnings, public weather forecasts and advisories, meteorological, astronomical, climatological, and other specialized information and...
issued a few advisories on the system as it existed within their area of responsibility, during which time it was given the local Filipino name Luming.
Situated in a region with little to no wind shear
Wind shear
Wind shear, sometimes referred to as windshear or wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere...
, the storm's outflow
Outflow (meteorology)
Outflow, in meteorology, is air that flows outwards from a storm system. It is associated with ridging, or anticyclonic flow. In the low levels of the troposphere, outflow radiates from thunderstorms in the form of a wedge of rain-cooled air, which is visible as a thin rope-like cloud on weather...
quickly became established and banding features
Rainband
A rainband is a cloud and precipitation structure associated with an area of rainfall which is significantly elongated. Rainbands can be stratiform or convective, and are generated by differences in temperature. When noted on weather radar imagery, this precipitation elongation is referred to as...
wrapped around the periphery. Despite Zita's proximity to China's coastline, it was able to intensify into a typhoon by August 22, attaining winds winds of 120 km/h (75 mph), equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale. Strengthening continued until Zita made landfall
Landfall (meteorology)
Landfall is the event of a tropical cyclone or a waterspout coming onto land after being over water. When a waterspout makes landfall it is reclassified as a tornado, which can then cause damage inland...
along the Leizhou Peninsula
Leizhou Peninsula
The Leizhou Peninsula or Leizhou Bandao is a peninsula in the southernmost part of Guangdong province in southern China.-Geography:Leizhou Peninsula is the third largest peninsula in China with an area of of circa 8,500 square kilometer located on the southwestern end of Guangdong, with the Gulf...
around 0600 UTC
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...
with winds of 140 km/h (85 mph). At landfall, the JMA assessed the storm to have been slightly weaker, estimating it to have peaked as a severe tropical storm with ten-minute sustained winds of 100 km/h (65 mph) and a barometric pressure of 980 mbar
Bar (unit)
The bar is a unit of pressure equal to 100 kilopascals, and roughly equal to the atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea level. Other units derived from the bar are the megabar , kilobar , decibar , centibar , and millibar...
(hPa
Pascal (unit)
The pascal is the SI derived unit of pressure, internal pressure, stress, Young's modulus and tensile strength, named after the French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and philosopher Blaise Pascal. It is a measure of force per unit area, defined as one newton per square metre...
; 28.94 inHg). Although the storm moved over land, it maintained its intensity as it entered the Gulf of Tonkin
Gulf of Tonkin
The Gulf of Tonkin is an arm of the South China Sea, lying off the coast of northeastern Vietnam.-Etymology:The name Tonkin, written "東京" in Hán tự and Đông Kinh in romanised Vietnamese, means "Eastern Capital", and is the former toponym for Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam...
. Around 2200 UTC, Zita made its final landfall near Cẩm Phả, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. Rapid weakening ensued as it moved further inland. Early on August 23, the JTWC issued their final advisory on the storm as it weakened to a tropical depression. However, the JMA continued to monitor Zita until it dissipated early on August 24 over extreme northwestern Vietnam.
Impact
Prior to the storm's arrival in China, officials evacuated roughly 54,000 people from dangerous areas. In southern China, Tropical Storm Zita produced torrential rainfall across Guangdong ProvinceGuangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, triggering widespread flooding and landslides. At least seven are known to have been killed in the province and damage reached $433 million (1997 USD). However, a report from Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
states that 345 people were killed by the storm. Roughly An estimated 55,170 km2 (21,300 mi2) of land was affected by the storm-induced floods, home to roughly 5.65 million people. In the city of Zhanjiang
Zhanjiang
Zhanjiang , formerly known as Tsamkong, Tsankiang, Fort-Bayard, and Kwang-Chou-Wan, is a prefecture-level city at the southwestern end of Guangdong province of Southern China, facing the island of Hainan to the south....
alone, 36,000 homes were destroyed and 80% of the coastal crops were lost. Throughout the Leizhou Peninsula, 332,650 hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s (822,000 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s) of farmland were damaged by the storm.
In Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, the outer bands of Zita brought significant rainfall, measured at 326.7 mm (12.9 in), which triggered 19 landslides. High winds downed power lines, leaving an estimated 1,900 people without power at the height of the storm. Throughout the city, damage amounted to HK$
Hong Kong dollar
The Hong Kong dollar is the currency of the jurisdiction. It is the eighth most traded currency in the world. In English, it is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively HK$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
550,000 ($70,747 USD). In Vietnam, the storm produced widespread heavy rainfall, leaving $5 million (1997 USD) in damage but no fatalities. Zita's remnants also brought significant rainfall to parts of neighboring Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
.