1962 Pacific typhoon season

A record year for typhoons

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center opened its 1962 summary by declaring a record: 24 typhoons, beating the 21 of 1952. It issued 815 warnings over 154 days and counted 6 tropical storms and 9 depressions besides the typhoons. The site's archive counts 23 typhoons among 30 tropical storms. The one-storm gap comes from winds: the JTWC's warnings put Typhoon Iris at 65 kt, while the archive's best track peaks it at 60 kt, below typhoon strength. The 1962 record stood only until 1964.

The JTWC tied most of the year's cyclones to 78 major easterly waves it analyzed, of which 42 carried vortices that could develop. By month, it counted 5 typhoons in July, 7 in August and 4 in October, against long-term averages of 2.6, 4.4 and 2.9. The archive puts the season's accumulated cyclone energy at 415.5.

Reconnaissance aircraft measured the deepest pressures in Karen at 897 mb, Emma at 903 mb, Opal at 910 mb and Ruth at 916 mb. The archive's merged best track gives lower minimums for Emma, at 890 hPa, and for Karen and Opal, at 900 hPa each. Six of the typhoons, among them Opal, Ruth, Amy and Emma, crossed into the Bering Sea.

Georgia in April, then a busy July

Tropical Storm Fran opened the season in early February off the southern Philippines. Typhoon Georgia became the first typhoon on 17 April and peaked at 130 kt west of Guam on 20 April, but it stayed at sea, damaging only a ship and its cargo. Typhoon Hope and Typhoon Iris followed in May, and Iris killed five people in the Philippines.

July brought five typhoons. Typhoon Kate struck Taiwan near Taitung on 22 July with winds of about 80 mph, then reached China near Wenzhou; it caused 110 deaths and $25 million in damage in 1962 dollars. Typhoon Louise weakened to a depression near Osaka after landfall in Japan, and caused 15 deaths there. Typhoon Nora crossed into South Korea as a tropical storm, and its rains flooded Hokkaido, where 15 people died and 14 went missing.

Opal and Ruth lead a crowded August

Typhoon Opal peaked at 145 kt and 900 hPa in the archive on 5 August and reached Taiwan soon afterward. Surge and floods swept through Yilan, where about 5,000 people lost their homes, and nearly 1,500 homes were destroyed on the island. Early reports listed 87 deaths in Taiwan, which a revised count on 8 August lowered to 12 deaths, 966 injured and 5 missing. Opal later killed two people in Japan and seven fishermen off South Korea.

Typhoon Patsy crossed the Philippines in early August and then struck Hainan. It caused 29 deaths, left more than 200 missing and closed Manila's airport. Typhoon Ruth became a typhoon within hours of reaching storm strength, passed over Saipan on 14 August and peaked at 160 kt in the archive on 16 August near Iwo Jima, the highest winds of the year. Ruth then turned northeast east of Tokyo without striking land.

By 23 August four storms were active at once: Ruth, Sarah, Thelma and Vera. Typhoon Thelma peaked at 115 kt in the archive and made landfall near Owase at about 105 mph. Typhoon Sarah and Typhoon Vera both came ashore on Kyushu as tropical storms.

Typhoon Wanda and the Hong Kong surge

Typhoon Wanda formed east of the Philippines on 27 August, crossed the South China Sea and came ashore near Hong Kong on the morning of 1 September. The archive peaks it at 95 kt, and its landfall winds were about 100 mph. The Royal Observatory recorded a maximum hourly mean wind of 68 kt and a minimum pressure of 953 mb, both records that still stand, and the surge raised water to 17 ft 9 in above chart datum in places.

Wanda killed 434 people and ranks as the second worst typhoon in Hong Kong's recorded history, behind the typhoon of 29 July 1896. Photographs in the JTWC report show gutted tenements, and sampans and junks the tide had left on Hong Kong streets.

Amy, Emma and a storm that reached Oregon

Typhoon Amy peaked at 140 kt in the archive on 1 September and struck Taiwan near Yilan on 5 September, weaker than its peak, before crossing to China near Fuzhou. Its floods killed 24 people. Typhoon Dinah came ashore near Hong Kong on 3 October with winds of about 105 mph, a month after Wanda.

Typhoon Emma made a U-turn just north of Saipan on 1 October and deepened over open water to the season's lowest archived pressure of 890 hPa on 5 October. It caused minor damage on Guam and Saipan. Emma later crossed into the Bering Sea near Little Sitkin Island.

Typhoon Freda peaked at 100 kt in early October and recurved into the North Pacific. The JTWC noted that it made the newspapers even as an extratropical storm when it reached the northwestern United States. There, as the Columbus Day Storm, it killed 46 people, with seven more deaths in British Columbia.

Typhoon Gilda peaked at 115 kt in late October and absorbed Typhoon Ivy after a Fujiwhara interaction. In the far southwest, Tropical Storm Harriet crossed southern Thailand on 25 October with a 50 kt archived peak. It killed at least 769 people and left 142 missing, and the Thai Meteorological Department gives 935 deaths, the country's deadliest tropical cyclone.

Typhoon Karen devastates Guam

Typhoon Karen formed southeast of Chuuk and reached 160 kt in the archive by 9 November, then turned west toward Guam. Its eye crossed the island on the night of 11 November. The JTWC wrote that Karen devastated the entire island, including its own command, and its photographs show permanent buildings heavily damaged and most temporary structures destroyed. The center's log records water pouring through the roof of its building overnight.

Gusts estimated near 185 mph destroyed or damaged about 95 percent of Guam's homes, with 11 deaths and $250 million in damage in 1962 dollars. The JTWC retired the name Karen after the season. Karen strengthened again west of Guam before weakening near Japan and becoming extratropical on 18 November.

Typhoon Lucy crossed the central Philippines in late November, killing 5 people. Tropical Storm Nadine, the last storm, formed near Guam in early December and became extratropical on 10 December without further harm to the island.