1. Sources of Typhoon Disaster Data

Typhoon data used in this database are obtained from the following sources.

• Maruzen: Rika Nenpyo (Chronological Scientific Tables) Rika Nenpyo (Chronological Scientific Tables), published by Maruzen, has "major meteorological disasters" section, and we extracted only disasters since 1951 mainly or partially caused by typhoons for Typhoon Disaster Database with permissions from copyright holders. This book covers past typhoon disasters most comprehensively among references that the general public can easily access. This database gives Rika Nenpyo data the highest priority.
• Japan Meteorological Agency: Weather Anomalies and Disasters Data For Weather Disaster Database, we used Japan Meteorological Agency provides weather anomalies and disasters dataset, and extracted records related to typhoons and tropical depressions, and records related to heavy rains. Hence 15,532 records out of 23,463 records are registered in the database. Between 1971 and 1997, we used the CD-ROM "Statistics of weather disasters 1971-1997," and between 1991 and 2009, the CD-ROM "JMA annual report," and the latter is employed when duplicate records are found. When the correction of data is provided in JMA annual reports, more recent data is employed.
• Fire and Disaster Management Agency : Disaster Information Fire and Disaster Management Agency summarizes disaster information, so we pick up disasters related to typhoons and put on the Website. Among data available on the Web, we use data on typhoons since 1999. The classification of damage is well unified, but it does not deal with damage information such as the cost of damage.
• The General Insurance Association of Japan : Statistics | Claims Paid for Wind Storm and Flood The General Insurance Association of Japan summarizes claims paid for major wind storm and flood, and disasters related to typhoons are put into the database. When the cost of damage is not available on Rika Nenpyo, the claims paid is used as the cost of damage. In general, however, the cost of damage on Rika Nenpyo is larger than the claims paid, because Rika Nenpyo calculates the cost of damage irrespective of the insurance.

Please note that, for the series of disasters across multiple typhoons, the total damage is recorded for each typhoon. In other words, the identical damage information is duplicated for multiple typhoons. Due to this reason, the simple summation of damage information for many typhoons may result in duplicate count of damage.

Other disaster records can be found at Typhoon Link Collection.