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Most of the typhoons have their own names. In Japan, a typhoon is called by the number like Typhoon No.14 or Typhoon 0314, which represents the 15-th typhoon of the year. However, in other countries, a typhoon (hurricane, cyclone) is usually called by the name, or the nickname. Just after the World War II when Japan was governed by the US, American-style typhoon names were used, but typhoon numbers became popular later in terms of domestic typhoon information. In terms of international typhoon information, on the other hand, typhoon names are still in use. In 2000, moreover, we changed typhoon names from western names to Asian names. The list of all typhoon names is shown in the following.
Japan Meteorological Agency also gives special names to typhoons when they brought significant disasters or when significant meteorological phenomena were observed. At this moment we have eight typhoons with special names.
This typhoon showed the typical life cycle of windy typhoons -- running across Japan Sea and redeveloping with transforming into an extratropical cyclone -- and the very strong winds blowing between Tohoku and Hokkaido lead to the shipwreck of Toyamaru, which is a connecting ferry between Aomori and Hakodate. [Resource]
The heavy rainfall on Tokai and Kanto regions caused more than 520,000 inundated houses, which is the largest number in history, and the largest damage was along Kanogawa river flowing in the middle of Izu Peninsula. [Resource]
The minimum pressure of 908.4hPa was recorded at Miyakojima, and the damage at Miyakojima was totally destructive. [Resource]
The record-breaking storm tide at Isewan resulted in more than 5,000 dead and missing, which is the largest number in history, and it totally changed disaster prevention policies in Japan. [Resource]
The maximum gust of +84.5m/s was recorded at Muroto Cape, and the large damage of strong winds and storm surge was caused over Kansai region. [Resource]
The maximum wind of 60.8m/s and the maximum gust of 85.3m/s was recorded at Miyakojima, which is the historically largest number in Japan. [Resource]
The maximum wind of 54.3m/s and the maximum gust of 79.8m/s was recorded at Miyakojima, and it resulted in large destruction again at Miyakojima. [Resource]
The minimum sea-level pressure of 907.3hPa was recorded at Okinoerabu Island. [Resource]
Damage by strong winds at many places such as Boso Peninsula. Asian name "Faxai." [Resource]
Damage by flooding in many rivers including major rivers due to record-breaking heavy rains over the wide range of East Japan. Asian name "Hagibis." [Resource]
Typhoons below are not named officially, but are frequently cited. Note that each typhoon below has an official typhoon name called an international name.
This typhoon recorded the largest rainfall of 83.4 billion tons over Japan, resulted in flooding and landslides simultaneously at many places all over Japan. [Resource]
The strongest typhoon on record -- the world's lowest sea surface pressure of 870hPa. This typhoon killed more than 100 people after making landfall on Japan. [Resource]
This typhoon is often called "Apple Typhoon" due to the devastating damage of apple farms in Aomori Prefecture. The amount of insurance payment also reached to the Japan's largest record of 567.9 billion yen. [Resource]
Digital Typhoon provides typhoon rankings with many kinds of criteria from the "search by metadata" on the top page. The following shows examples of typhoon ranking.
Detailed information is provided in the following pages within "Digital Typhoon" Web site.
Typhoon occurrence statistics is available for the Western North Pacific. One graph shows the accumulative number of typhoons from January 1 to December 31, while the other shows the average number of active typhoons for each day. The former graph indicates that the average formation of typhoons in a season is a little less than 27. On the other hand, the latter graph shows that the number of typhoons decreases to zero around the mid of February, and this means that this period has had very few typhoons. It is hence natural to say that this period is the boundary of typhoon seasons, and a new typhoon season starts in the mid of February.
In terms of the coexistence of multiple typhoons, "Olympic Typhoons" is a famous case, in which five typhoons were active simultaneously. They are named after the five Olympic rings, because Olympic Summer Games were held in Rome on the same summer in 1960.
Strictly speaking, 1960 Summer Olympics was held from August 25, 1960 through September 11, 1960, while the coexistence of five typhoons was between August 23, 06:00 UTC, 1960, through August 24, 00:00 UTC, 1960, so they slightly missed the overlap of periods.
In addition, Activity Calendar (Number of Typhoons and Cyclones) shows that not only in 1960 but also in 1985, five typhoons were active on September 1 in JST (Japan Standard Time) but not in UTC. The real situation was that the number of typhoons at the same moment was 4 at maximum on this day, because the birth and death of typhoons happened multiple times on this day.
The following pages show the period of the presence of active typhoons, and the continuation of inactivity of typhoons.
You can draw typhoon best track maps specifying several kinds of criteria. The detail can be found at Typhoon track maps by typhoon sequence search.
The complex movement of multiple typhoons because of interaction (interference) among them is called "Fujiwara Effect." It is known to work when distance between typhoons is less than or around 1000km. The name "Fujiwara Effect" is named after a Japanese meteorologist of that name who first noticed this effect. A few examples are shown below.
El Niño is a period of time, usually about one year, when the sea surface temperature is higher than normal in the area between the middle of the equatorial Pacific Ocean (around the date line) and the coast of Peru in South America. La Niña is a period of time, on the other hand, when the sea surface temperature is lower than normal in the same area. The following provides the list of typhoons whose birthday is included in the period of El Niño and La Niña based on the data from Japan Meteorological Agency's El Niño page. The period is defined on a seasonal basis (three months each), and the following search considers this seasonal definition.
The following figures show the birthplace map of typhoons during El Niño and La Niña events. The same figures can be made by clicking on the links above, then click "Draw the typhoon birthplace map" on the page.
To evaluate the accuracy of typhoon forecast, we summarize the accuracy of typhoon forecast circles.
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