Typhoon Thelma (1977)

Typhoon Thelma (Goring)
	Thelma near peak intensity on July 24
Meteorological history
Formed	July 21, 1977
Dissipated	July 26, 1977
Typhoon
	10-minute sustained (JMA)
Highest winds	130 km/h (80 mph)
Lowest pressure	950 hPa (mbar); 28.05 inHg
Category 2-equivalent typhoon
	1-minute sustained (SSHWS/JTWC)
Highest winds	155 km/h (100 mph)
Overall effects
Fatalities	33
Injuries	119
Missing	1
Damage	>$629 million (1977 USD)
Areas affected	Philippines, Taiwan, China
	Part of the 1977 Pacific typhoon season

Typhoon Thelma, also known in the Philippines as Typhoon Goring,^[2] was a deadly and destructive typhoon which impacted the Philippines, Taiwan, and China during July 1977. The twelfth tropical depression, fourth tropical storm, and second typhoon of the inactive 1977 Pacific typhoon season, Thelma originated from a tropical depression near the Philippines. Developing into a tropical storm on July 21, Thelma underwent further intensification due to a tropical upper tropospheric trough to the north and strongly divergent upper level northeasterlies to the south, helped Thelma to intensify into a typhoon later that day. Passing just northeast of the Philippines two days later, Thelma would not undergo further development due to the TUTT cell receding northwards, making landfall in the Port of Kaohsiung on July 25. Rapidly weakening once inland, Thelma entered Taiwan Strait and made landfall in Fuzhou, China as a tropical depression, dissipating on July 27.

In Taiwan, Thelma was highly destructive, prompting a member of the Joint Typhoon Warning Center to state that it "brought more destruction on Taiwan than any event since World War II." In Kaohsiung alone, 119 people were injured while 28 were killed. Thelma's winds knocked over 155 steel towers and their power lines, causing blackouts for nearly all of Southern Taiwan. In Northern Taiwan, most of the 40 thousand factories had to curtail production, with 150 manufacturing plants suspending all production due to the typhoon's destruction. Many rivers burst their embankments, flooding many acres of farmland and drowning four. Elsewhere, in the Philippines, one person died while another went missing.

^ Cite error: The named reference cwa was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b National Disaster Coordinating Council; Office of Civil Defense Operations Center (December 2003). "Destructive Typhoons 1970-2003". Baseportal. Retrieved October 3, 2024.

[cwa-1] Cite error: The named reference cwa was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[ndcc-2] National Disaster Coordinating Council; Office of Civil Defense Operations Center (December 2003). "Destructive Typhoons 1970-2003". Baseportal. Retrieved October 3, 2024.

[1]

[2]