1969 Pacific typhoon season

An unusually inactive year

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center called 1969 an unusually inactive year. It warned on 13 typhoons, 6 tropical storms and 4 tropical depressions and issued 430 warnings over 108 days, against averages for 1960 to 1967 of 781 warnings, 160 days, 21 typhoons and 11 tropical storms. It carried two or more cyclones at once on only 15 days, compared with 68 in 1968. 1969 ranks as the fourth least active season on record.

The site's 19 tropical storms and 13 typhoons match the JTWC count, since both rest on one-minute US warning winds. Other season lists give 23 tropical storms, using Japan Meteorological Agency intensities, which average winds over ten minutes, and adding extra systems. The JTWC counted two super typhoons, Viola at 130 kt and Elsie at 150 kt. The site's Category 5 threshold of 137 kt keeps only Elsie.

Phyllis in January and Susan in April

Typhoon Phyllis formed on 16 January and became a typhoon the next day, peaking at 85 kt. Tropical Storm Rita followed in March. Typhoon Susan in April was the notable early storm: the JTWC described it as an off-season typhoon that ignored climatology to reach 105 kt, and its growth caught the center's intensity forecasts short.

After Susan the basin went quiet until July, when Typhoon Tess reached 70 kt on 10 July.

Typhoon Viola and the disaster at Shantou

Viola formed east of the Philippines on 20 July and grew into a large storm. It peaked at 130 kt on 26 July, when it brushed northern Luzon, and aircraft measured 897 mb; the archive lists 900 hPa. It then weakened for lack of inflow as it moved northwest.

Viola came ashore in southeastern China on 28 July as a minimal typhoon, far below its peak, and caused more than 1,000 deaths in and around Shantou in Guangdong, where it made landfall.

Short-lived August storms

August brought Tropical Storms Winnie and Alice and Typhoon Betty early in the month, none lasting more than a week. Typhoon Cora peaked at 85 kt on 19 August, and Typhoon Doris reached typhoon strength on 1 September. Most of these systems lived only a few days at tropical storm strength or above.

Elsie and Flossie over Taiwan

Typhoon Elsie formed over the open western Pacific and tracked almost due west, becoming a typhoon on 21 September. The archive gives it 895 hPa on 23 September and 150 kt on 24 September, the peak of the year. The JTWC recorded a pressure of 890 mb, which it called one of the lowest ever recorded in the western Pacific.

Elsie weakened steadily as it neared Taiwan and struck the north of the island on 26 September with winds of about 105 mph, well below its peak. It crossed into eastern China a day later. It killed 102 people, left 24 missing and injured 227. Tropical Storm Flossie followed within days and drifted north off Taiwan from 1 to 5 October; its heavy rain left 75 people dead.

Five typhoons in the autumn

The autumn produced most of the year's major typhoons. Typhoon Grace reached 95 kt in early October, Helen 105 kt on 11 October and Ida 115 kt on 20 October. The JTWC singled out Ida's unusually rapid intensification as a source of large forecast errors. Typhoons June and Kathy reached 105 kt and 110 kt in early November, and Tropical Storms Lorna and Marie closed the year.

More satellites, and radar on Guam

The JTWC had more satellite data in 1969 than ever before. ESSA 6, later replaced by ESSA 8, and NIMBUS 3 sent morning pictures direct to Guam, NIMBUS 3 added night infrared images, and ATS pictures arrived as a mosaic after an eight-hour delay. A weather radar at Guam was finished in time for the season but saw little use. The center also introduced a new intensity forecast method based on extrapolated central pressure, and its median track error of 97 nautical miles tied 1968 as the best in 11 years of records.