1959 Pacific typhoon season
The 1959 Pacific typhoon season was regarded as one of the most devastating years for Pacific typhoons on record, with China, Japan and South Korea sustaining catastrophic losses.[1] It was an event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation. The season had no official bounds, but tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific Ocean normally develop between May and October.
The scope of this article is limited to the Pacific Ocean, north of the equator and west of the International Date Line. Storms that form east of the Date Line and north of the equator are called hurricanes; see 1959 Pacific hurricane season. All typhoons were assigned a name and number. Tropical storms and tropical depressions formed in the entire west Pacific basin were assigned a name and number by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, but the latter was not added if no reconnaissance missions were assigned. Systems handled by the responsibility of the United States Weather Bureau (USWB) and Fleet Weather Center (FWC) featured no number.
The 1959 Pacific typhoon season featured 24 tropical cyclones, though operationally 59 total areas of investigation were classified by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC);[2] three systems were handled by the responsibility of FWC at Pearl Harbor and the USWB at Honolulu. Three systems were questionable due to lack of reconnaissance aircraft use. In total, the season featured 65 tropical cyclones and areas of investigation operationally, including central Pacific Hurricane Patsy, which was operationally believed to have crossed the International Date Line into the western Pacific. The first annual tropical cyclone report for the western North Pacific Ocean was issued by the agency.[2]
Duration
February 27 – March 1
March 4 – March 13
April 14 – April 23
June 27 – June 29
July 4 – July 8
July 5 – July 6
55 km/h (35 mph) (1-min);
July 12 – July 18
August 2 – August 12
August 11 – August 12
55 km/h (35 mph) (1-min);
August 12 – August 14
August 17 – August 19
August 19 – August 23
August 25 – August 31
August 25 – August 27
August 30 – September 7
September 2 – September 3
September 5 – September 12
September 5 – September 6
65 km/h (40 mph) (1-min);
September 6 – September 10
September 8 – September 10
55 km/h (35 mph) (1-min);
September 11 – September 19
September 18 – September 19
55 km/h (35 mph) (1-min);
September 21 – September 28
October 3 – October 9
October 5 – October 10
October 9 – October 19
October 14 – October 25
November 5 – November 15
November 13 – November 19
December 11 – December 22
December 22, 1959 – January 3, 1960