1974 Pacific typhoon season

Many storms, few typhoons

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center counted 32 tropical storms in 1974, about 10 percent above its 15-year average. Only 15 of them, 47 percent, became typhoons, against a long-term ratio of 65 percent, and typhoon days totaled 62, well below the 90-day average. July and August stood out: storms formed, but few of them strengthened.

The site's archive agrees on 32 tropical storms and 15 typhoons, using US-agency one-minute winds during the tropical stage. It counts 3 major typhoons, no Category 5 storm and an accumulated cyclone energy of 194.5. Other season lists give 16 typhoons, following a different mix of agency records, and 1974 was the first season on record without a Category 5-equivalent super typhoon.

The JTWC observed no super typhoons, with winds of 130 kt or more, for the first time in its records. It suspected that Typhoon Gloria approached that level before reaching the Philippines, based on the pressure trend in the final aircraft fixes, but lacked the evidence to classify it. The archive peaks Gloria at 120 kt and 930 hPa on 6 November, the season's strongest storm and lowest pressure.

Early storms and Dinah on Luzon

Tropical Storm Wanda formed in January, and Tropical Storm Amy and Tropical Storm Babe followed in March and April. Typhoon Carla became the first typhoon in early May, after its center passed over Tinian and Saipan; wind shear weakened it within a day of its peak at 80 kt.

Typhoon Dinah crossed Luzon's mountains in under six hours on 10 June. Rain totals reached 19.4 inches in 24 hours at Virac and 15.4 inches at Baler, and flash floods and landslides left 73 dead and 33 missing by the JTWC's count, with damage of about $1 million. The JTWC ranked Dinah the most disastrous storm of the year for the Philippines. Dinah went on to cross Hainan and died in North Vietnam.

Gilda's floods and a wet summer farther north

Typhoon Gilda peaked as its eye passed southwest of Naha, Okinawa, on 4 July, with an aircraft pressure of 944 mb; the archive puts its peak at 90 kt. Okinawa lost almost all its electric power. Gilda then weakened and passed between Japan and South Korea. In South Korea the JTWC reported more than 700 dwellings damaged or destroyed, over 6,000 people homeless, 21 dead and 11 missing, with damage of about $2.8 million.

Gilda's circulation also stirred a stationary front over western and central Japan, and Owase on the Kii peninsula recorded 16.5 inches in 24 hours. Newspaper reports cited by the JTWC gave $1.2 billion in property damage in Japan, in US dollars of the time, where landslides and flash floods left 106 dead and 15 missing. The JTWC called Gilda the most disastrous storm of the year. Later totals for Gilda across its path give 128 deaths and damage of $1.5 billion in 1974 US dollars.

Typhoon Ivy deepened 32 mb in 20 hours before striking Luzon south of Baler with sustained winds of 90 kt on 20 July. The JTWC reported 66 casualties in the Philippines, 46 of them missing, and newspaper reports that 80 percent of Baler's houses were leveled. In August and September monsoon westerlies reached farther north than usual, helped by the huge circulation of Typhoon Mary. The extratropical remnants of Tropical Depression 20 then flooded western Korea in late August, and the JTWC counted 77 dead and missing. In late September Tropical Storm Wendy's heavy seas sank the freighter Sun Shang off southern Taiwan with the loss of 31 crew.

Five typhoons strike Luzon in less than a month

In early October the monsoon trough returned to the Philippine Sea and sent a parade of storms west. Bess, Carmen, Della, Elaine and Gloria affected Luzon in just under a month, a frequency the JTWC described as unmatched in records since the Second World War. During reconnaissance of Bess over the South China Sea, a US Air Force weather aircraft and its crew of six were lost.

Typhoon Bess brought 30.8 inches of rain to Baguio, and the JTWC reported 26 killed and 3 missing with damage near $9.2 million; the name Bess was retired. Typhoon Carmen followed within days, killing 13 on Luzon with damage near $11.6 million, then came within 70 nautical miles of Hong Kong, where 18.1 inches of rain fell over three days. Newspapers reported 11 deaths on Taiwan from the rain of Bess and Carmen.

Typhoon Elaine peaked at 95 kt and crossed northern Luzon on 27 October. Its rain, on top of Della's a few days earlier, left most farmland under water, with 32.2 inches in 24 hours at Baguio. The JTWC reported $21 million in losses, about 300,000 people homeless and 23 killed, 14 of them swept off a ferry in the Sibuyan Sea. PAGASA later retired Elaine's local name, Wening.

Typhoon Gloria raced across the Philippine Sea at up to 24 kt, deepened to 937 mb with an eye only 4 nautical miles wide, filled and then deepened again. The last reconnaissance flight, 10 hours before landfall, found 931 mb, the lowest pressure measured all year. Gloria crossed northern Luzon in six hours on 6 November, with gusts of 96 kt at Aparri. The JTWC reported 10 deaths, mostly drownings, and $3.2 million in damage. Gloria stalled west of Luzon and died over the South China Sea.

Irma closes the year

Typhoon Irma peaked at 115 kt in the archive and struck Luzon 30 nautical miles south of Baler on 28 November, passing directly over Clark Air Base. Ships in Manila Bay were driven almost to the Roxas Boulevard seawall. The JTWC reported $7.3 million in damage and more than 1,000 homes destroyed or damaged, and newspapers credited Irma with 11 deaths. Irma reached southern China as a weakening tropical storm on 2 December, the latest date for a tropical storm landfall there. Tropical storms Judy and Kit followed in December, and the archive's last tropical-stage observation falls on 24 December.