| 1959 Pacific typhoon season | |
|---|---|
 Season summary map | |
| Seasonal boundaries | |
| First system formed | February 27, 1959 |
| Last system dissipated | January 2, 1960 |
| Strongest storm | |
| Name | Joan |
| • Maximum winds | 315 km/h (195 mph) (1-minute sustained) |
| • Lowest pressure | 885 hPa (mbar) |
| Seasonal statistics | |
| Total depressions | 33 |
| Total storms | 25 |
| Typhoons | 18 |
| Super typhoons | 8 (unofficial) |
| Total fatalities | > 8,557 |
| Total damage | > $755 million (1959 USD) |
| Related articles | |
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]
- ^ "Wind Season, Worst Ever, Called Over". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Tokyo, Japan. Associated Press. October 22, 1959. p. 30. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
- ^ a b Tilden, C. E. (1959). Hoffman, R. M (ed.). Annual Typhoon Report: 1959 (PDF) (Technical report). Fleet Weather Central/Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 2, 2010. Retrieved 4 August 2013.