TYPHOON

A Pacific typhoon or tropical storm is a tropical cyclone that forms in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The basin is demarcated within the Pacific Ocean from Asia, north of the equator, and west of the International Date Line. Storms from the Eastern and Central Pacific crossing the date line are re-designated as typhoons; prior to entering the basin they are respectively called "hurricanes" and "severe tropical cyclones."This basin features the strongest cyclones on record.
Typhoon seasons include the entirety of the calendar year. Most storms tend to form between May and November, although they can occur at other times of the year as well.

Etimology

The word "typhoon" might come from the Hakka dialect phrase "tai foon", or the Cantonese phrase "dai fung", OR the Mandarin "taí fēng," all with the meaning "Big Wind" .
Other possible origins of the word include the Greek Typhon, the god of the winds, who personifies storm thunder winds. The Arabic, Persian, and Hindi terms tufan may have been borrowed from the Greek. In old Turkic script the word Tufan is also recorded.
In current Mandarin Chinese, typhoon is táifēng and in Japanese it is taifū .

Climatology

Nearly one-third of the world's tropical cyclones form within the Western Pacific. This makes this basin the most active.Pacific typhoons have formed year round, with peak months from August to October. The peak months correspond to that of the Atlantic hurricane seasons. Along with a high storm frequency, this basin also features the most globally intense storms on record. One of the most recent extraordinary years was 1962.

Storm Frequency

Tropical storms and Typhoons by month,
for the period 1959-2005

Month	Count	Average
Jan	28	0.6
Feb	15	0.3
Mar	26	0.6
Apr	39	0.8
May	64	1.4
Jun	96	2.0
Jul	215	4.6
Aug	312	6.6
Sep	262	5.6
Oct	219	4.7
Nov	134	2.9
Dec	75	1.6
Annual	1484	31.6

Source: JTWC

Record Intensity

Storms reaching an intensity of 878 mbar (25.9 inHg) or below:

Rank	Name	Pressure	Location	Years
1	Typhoon Tip	870 mbar	Western Pacific	1979
2	Typhoon Gay	872 mbar	Western Pacific	1992‡
3	Typhoon Ivan	872 mbar	Western Pacific	1997‡
4	Typhoon Joan	872 mbar	Western Pacific	1997‡
5	Typhoon Keith	872 mbar	Western Pacific	1997‡
6	Typhoon Zeb	872 mbar	Western Pacific	1998‡
7	Typhoon June	875 mbar	Western Pacific	1975
8	Typhoon Ida	877 mbar	Western Pacific	1958
9	Typhoon Nora	877 mbar	Western Pacific	1973
10	Typhoon Rita	878 mbar	Western Pacific	1978
11	Typhoon Yvette	878 mbar	Western Pacific	1992‡
12	Typhoon Damrey	878 mbar	Western Pacific	2000‡

‡ Minimum central pressure of these storms was estimated based
on satellite data rather than directly measured.

Paths

Typhoon paths follow three general directions.
* Straight. A general westward path affects the Philippines, southern China, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
* Recurving. Storms recurving affect eastern China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.
* Northward. From point of origin, the storm follows a northerly direction, only affecting small islands.

Name sources

The list of names consists of entries from 17 East Asian nations and the United States who have territories directly affected by typhoons. The submitted names are arranged into five lists; and each list is cycled with each year. Unlike hurricanes, typhoons are not named after people. Instead, they generally refer to animals, flowers, astrological signs, and a few personal names. However, PAGASA retains its own naming list, which does consist of human names. Therefore, a typhoon can possibly have two names. Storms that cross the date line from the Central Pacific retain their original name, but the designation of hurricane becomes typhoon. In Japan and Vietnam, typhoons are simply numbered according to the sequence of their occurrence in thecalendar year. Hence the third typhoon in a given year is simply "Typhoon No. 3".