Gradually strengthening, Dot moved towards the west-northwest, northwest, and then curved west, leading to a landfall at typhoon intensity on Luzon on October 9.

Dot curved northward and maintained this intensity as its final landfall near Hong Kong on October 13, during which the Royal Observatory hoisted the No.

Dot's slow movement near landfall prolonged its impacts, with the Royal Observatory recording eight hours of gale-force winds and over 330 mm (13 in) of rain.

A peak gust of 220 km/h (140 mph) was clocked at Tate's Cairn, and the strong winds damaged most buildings around Hong Kong and shattered windows.

[4] This initial disturbance tracked westward for several days; aircraft reconnaissance first intercepted the nascent system 160 km (99 mi) southwest of Yap, finding it to have organized into a tropical storm.

Early airborne observations suggested the system was dissipating, but additional intercepts a more organized center of circulation on October 7 around which Dot was developing.

[4] Dot curved northwest and then west on October 9, concurrently reaching typhoon intensity and making landfall on northern Luzon at around 06:00 UTC the same day.

[3] Dot crossed northern Luzon and emerged into the South China Sea on a westerly heading at Laoag as it maintained typhoon intensity.

[2] Dot nearly became stationary during the course of this turn approximately 430 km (270 mi) southwest of Hong Kong, but resumed a north-northwestward heading with a forward speed of about 11 km/h (6.8 mph) the next day.

[5][9]: 70  The typhoon's arrival led to the closure of many banks and offices and the suspension of all public transportation, including ferry service connecting Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

[9]: 90  The typhoon's winds and rain damaged most buildings, brought down power lines, and blew out thousands of glass windows, causing many injuries.

[16] Dot produced a peak rainfall total of 331.2 mm (13.04 in), ranking it among the wettest tropical cyclones in Hong Kong's history;[17] much of this rain fell within a 24-hour period.