1906 Hong Kong typhoon

1906 Hong Kong typhoon

Track of the typhoon
Formed	7 September 1906
Dissipated	18 September 1906
Lowest pressure	984 hPa (mbar); 29.06 inHg ()
Fatalities	4000 ‒10 000 (estimated)
Areas affected	Qing China (especially British Hong Kong)
Part of the 1906 Pacific typhoon season

The 1906 Hong Kong typhoon was a tropical cyclone which hit the city of Hong Kong on 18 September 1906. The event was a major natural disaster, property damage exceeding a million pounds sterling and affecting international trade, and loss of life that amounted to around 5% of the contemporary Hong Kong population.

The Hong Kong Observatory recorded the 1906 typhoon as having a velocity of 24 miles per hour (39 km/h) when the eye of the typhoon was 30 nautical miles (56 km) distant and it had a wind force of 6 Bft taken as limit, about 100 miles (160 km; 100 mi) miles in diameter. The Hong Kong Observatory had recorded the 1896 typhoon (29 July) with a velocity of 108 miles per hour (174 km/h) when the eye of the typhoon was of 47 nautical miles (87 km; 54 mi) distant, and with a wind force 6 taken as limit, about 500 miles (800 km) in diameter.

The Hong Kong Observatory was said to give less than 30 minutes' alert of a rapidly approaching typhoon; by then it was close to Hong Kong waters. A black drum (an official warning to be issued for tropical cyclones from Hong Kong Observatory since 1884) was hoisted at 8:40 AM, before the typhoon gun was fired for its harbor warning. By 9:00 AM, the ferries had already ceased to operate and quite a few of the foreign steamer captains and their sailors were caught off-guard and stuck on land, unable to quickly reach their vessels to take any necessary precautions. The barometer showed a rapid drop from 29.74 inHg to 29.28 inHg between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM, within just two hours.

There were two reports from Shanghai observatory regarding an advance warning of the 1906 typhoon:

During the high time within 2 hours, much property damage occurred to the housing properties on the land and the shipping vessels in the port, and an estimated 4000–10 000 lives might have been lost in the Colony.

The wind howled, the broken glasses and rustling roof tiles were thrown everywhere. Tree branches were torn and some trees were even unrooted. The passers-by, rickshaw coolies and sedan chairs carriers were rushing through along the streets, and some were even blown off their feet by the strong gales. The tram lines on Hong Kong Island stopped operation when some of its electric wiring bars, being hampered by falling pipes and their tracks, were obstructed by roadside debis. The Peak Tram's service was also discontinued for 2 hours after 10 AM, after its signalling cables, being damaged by broken tree branches and some landslides, covered its track along Bowen Road. The Botanical Gardens had their trees and flowering plants broken down while the glass house and the zoological department were intact among the terrible havoc.