After developing an eye, Kim began to rapidly intensify, and during the afternoon of July 24, peaked in intensity as a super typhoon.

Kim continued northwestward but its disrupted circulation prevented re-intensification, and it remained a tropical storm until hitting southern China July 27 to the northeast of Hong Kong, where only slight damage was reported.

At 20:04 UTC, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert for the system, primarily because the disturbance was over warm water and low wind shear.

[nb 1][3] Following reports from a Hurricane hunter plane of a well-defined surface circulation and winds of 40 to 50 km/h (25 to 30 mph), the JTWC classified the system as Tropical Depression 11 midday on July 20.

Based on surface observations of 65 km/h (40 mph) on the island and data from Hurricane hunters, both the JTWC[1] and JMA upgraded the depression into a tropical storm at 18:00 UTC.

[5] Around this time, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) also began to monitor the storm and assigned it with the local name Osang.

At 18:00 on July 24, the JMA estimated that Kim reached its peak intensity to 170 km/h (105 mph) and assigned a pressure of 910 mbar (26.87 inHg).

[5][nb 2] Almost immediately thereafter, reports from the same Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicated that the pressure of the typhoon rose sharply, likely in response to decreased inflow caused by Kim's close proximity to land.

[3] Continuing to weaken due to land interaction, Kim fell below typhoon intensity once it emerged into the South China Sea,[1] according to both the JTWC and JMA.

The storm's inner core was disrupted by land, with Hurricane hunters constantly finding a poorly organized tropical cyclone.

A minimum pressure of 998.9 mbar (29.50 inHg) was recorded at the Hong Kong Royal Observatory (HKO) on July 27, around the time Kim made its closest approach to the city.