1957 Pacific typhoon season

Few storms, many intense ones

Fourteen of the archive's 20 tropical storms reached 96 kt or more, an unusually high share. The site's accumulated cyclone energy for the year comes to 399.1. Colorado State University calculated 440.2 units from Joint Typhoon Warning Center data, the seventh highest for any western Pacific season. The two totals differ because the site sums only tropical-stage one-minute winds over calendar-year observations in the merged archive.

Other season lists count 22 tropical storms, 18 typhoons and 8 super typhoons. Its list includes storms tracked by the Japan Meteorological Agency and numbered JTWC systems, while the site counts only storms whose US-agency one-minute winds reached 34 kt during the tropical stage. Six of the archive's 26 tracks carry no wind estimate. Typhoon Della, which formed in the Central Pacific in early September, crossed the date line to peak in this basin and then drifted back east, counts on the site's 1957 Pacific hurricane season page instead.

A January typhoon and an early-summer strike on Taiwan

A weak storm came ashore on Leyte as a depression on 6 January. Typhoon Rose followed later that month, forming southeast of Guam on 21 January, becoming the year's first typhoon on 22 January and peaking at 135 kt on 24 January in the archive. Other records give Rose 160 mph and 920 mbar, the most intense January typhoon on record. Typhoon Shirley reached 100 kt in April before fading near northern Luzon, and Typhoon Trix peaked at 120 kt in May and died near the date line without touching land.

Typhoon Virginia formed east of the southern Philippines on 18 June and reached 150 kt with a pressure of 900 hPa on 22 June, the lowest pressure in the site's 1957 archive, which Hester and Lola later matched. It weakened while passing east of Luzon, then came ashore in Taiwan on 25 June, with sampled winds of 90 kt over land, before moving on toward Korea and Japan. It destroyed 1,000 buildings and killed 86 people across Taiwan and southern Japan, with damage of $20 million in 1957 US dollars.

Typhoon Wendy peaked at 90 kt on 14 July near its first landfall on Luzon, and then struck Guangdong as a strong tropical storm. Flooding in the Philippines killed at least 76 people, left 300 missing and displaced about 30,000, with damage there of $2 million in 1957 US dollars. In Hong Kong, gusts of 95 knots and torrential rain killed 16 people and injured about 200, and eight fishermen died off Guangdong when their boat sank.

Agnes, Bess and the return to Okinawa

Typhoon Agnes reached 135 kt on 18 August and passed over the Ryukyu Islands with a pressure near 905 hPa. It weakened sharply, struck South Korea as a tropical storm on 21 August and crossed into the Russian Far East before becoming extratropical. Typhoon Bess formed near the Marshall Islands in late August, cut communications on Iwo Jima for about 23 hours on 30 August and hit southern Japan on 6 September. It caused at least 20 deaths in Japan, including six on Kyushu, where 912 homes were destroyed, and about 24,000 people left homeless nationwide.

Mid-September brought four typhoons at once. Carmen reached 110 kt and came ashore in southern China on 15 September. Elaine peaked at 120 kt over open water. Gloria crossed the Philippines and brought typhoon winds to Hong Kong. Typhoon Faye reached Category 5 and a peak of 140 kt on 20 September, then weakened before striking Okinawa as a Category 2 typhoon, a year after Typhoon Emma had battered the island. Faye left 53 people dead and 79 missing.

Kit, Lola and a late-season surge

Typhoon Hester intensified rapidly southeast of Japan and reached 130 kt on 8 October, with a pressure of 900 hPa, before tracking toward the Aleutians. Typhoon Irma crossed into Vietnam in mid-October, where it killed nine people. Typhoon Judy peaked at 130 kt and passed far enough from Japan to spare it.

Typhoon Kit formed on 7 November and strengthened quickly after reaching tropical-storm strength, peaking at 140 kt on 10 November. It crossed northern Luzon on 11 November with sampled winds of 105 kt over land, during a national election. Rain and wind affected nearly half of the 7.2 million people expected to vote, and at least 19 people died in the Philippines.

Typhoon Lola began near 6°N, 171°E on 7 November, the same day as Kit, and moved west past Guam, where it flooded parts of Merizo four to five feet deep. Near Kili Island in the Marshall Islands it destroyed crops and sank the island's supply ship. Lola reached its peak of 160 kt on 16 November, the season's strongest wind in the archive, with a pressure of 900 hPa, then curved east and faded beyond the date line on 22 November. Typhoon Mamie reached 110 kt on 21 November, and the archive's last tropical-stage observation of the year falls on 23 November.