1977 Pacific typhoon season

The fewest typhoons in JTWC's records

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported that 1977 produced the smallest number of typhoons since it was formed in 1959. Of its 21 numbered cyclones, 11 became typhoons, 8 peaked as tropical storms and 2 stayed depressions. The site's archive also counts 19 tropical storms and 11 typhoons, puts accumulated cyclone energy at 162 and records 4 major typhoons at 96 kt or more: Vera, Babe, Kim and Lucy. Only Babe crossed JTWC's 130 kt super typhoon line. Other season lists count 21 tropical storms because they also take in systems that the Japan Meteorological Agency named as storms on ten-minute winds.

JTWC logged only 12 days with two storms at once, the fewest since its records began, and no day with three. It described the year as full of small, poorly defined cyclones that often wandered, with five storms making one or more loops. An unusually large and strong subtropical ridge and vertical wind shear held many of the weaker systems back.

A deep monsoon and an empty August

January through June brought no typhoons and only two tropical storms, Patsy in March and Ruth in June. July was near normal, but in late July the southwest monsoon over India and Southeast Asia grew deep and stretched far into the western North Pacific for weeks. The monsoon trough ran from Hainan to the Bonin Islands and spun up several monsoon depressions: broad, lopsided lows with winds under 34 kt, strongest a mile or two above the surface.

August set a record low, with no typhoons and one tropical storm, Amy, which barely reached 40 kt. Tropical Storm Wanda and then Amy pulled the region of low pressure far north of its usual position, and for much of the month pressures in the tropics stayed high while easterly winds dominated near the equator. By early September pressures had fallen, the near-equatorial trough returned, and JTWC judged the rest of the season near normal.

Sarah, then Thelma and Vera in Taiwan

Typhoon Sarah, the year's first typhoon, crossed Luzon as a tropical storm, peaked at 75 kt over the South China Sea on 20 July and went ashore on Hainan that evening at about 70 kt. It then crossed the Gulf of Tonkin and made landfall near Haiphong. JTWC reported very little damage, citing Hanoi Radio accounts of destruction without casualties. Other accounts give a far heavier toll in Vietnam: 101 deaths, 9 missing and 390 injured, including 48 dead in Haiphong.

Typhoon Thelma formed in the Philippine Sea while Sarah was still over the South China Sea. It peaked at 85 kt and 957 mb south-southwest of Kaohsiung on 24 July, then struck Kaohsiung harbor early on the afternoon of the 25th, where the station recorded 86 kt peak winds. JTWC reported more than 30 deaths, thousands injured and about 5,000 people left homeless. Thelma felled 53 high-voltage towers, cut power to more than half of Taiwan's 45,000 factories, wrecked all eight of the harbor's giant cranes and capsized at least 17 ships. Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau called it the most destructive tropical cyclone to hit the island in more than 80 years.

Typhoon Vera formed north of the usual development area on 27 July and tracked southwest, then west, reaching its 110 kt peak at 00 UTC on 31 July. Its eye passed just south of Ishigaki-jima, where winds hit 103 kt. Vera made landfall at Keelung later that day and followed the river valley toward Taipei; both cities set records for their highest observed winds. It crossed to mainland China near Chuan-chou on 1 August at 80 kt. JTWC reported at least 25 dead in Taiwan, with two ships sunk and heavy crop and property losses.

Typhoon Babe threatens every base

Babe formed south of Guam at the start of September, when the near-equatorial trough returned. JTWC called it a challenging storm that threatened nearly every Defense Department facility in the western North Pacific. After heading west toward the Philippines, Babe turned north on 5 September and deepened from 988 mb to 907 mb in about two and a half days. The archive gives its peak as 130 kt and 905 hPa on 8 September, the strongest wind and lowest pressure of the year.

A new trough over northern China made Babe recurve earlier than forecast, sparing Taiwan and turning it toward the Ryukyu Islands. JTWC reported that it struck Okino-Erabu, injuring 45 people and destroying 1,600 homes, and sank a Panamanian freighter with 16 reported dead or missing. Babe then circled a cut-off low and hit China just north of Shanghai on 11 September at 65 kt, well below its peak. It caused one death on Amami Oshima and destroyed more than 24,000 homes and killed nine people in China.

Dinah, Kim and the late-year typhoons

Typhoon Dinah formed northeast of the Philippines in mid-September and crossed northern Luzon on 15 and 16 September. Its rain and floods killed 54 people there and left 11 missing. Dinah then drifted over the South China Sea, reached typhoon strength and reached southern Vietnam as a depression. Typhoons Gilda, Ivy and Jean followed in October without striking land as typhoons, and Tropical Storm Harriet moved north toward Alaska.

Typhoon Kim formed near Ponape in early November, and its eye crossed Guam on 8 November, when it was still a strong tropical storm, bringing a 77 kt gust on Nimitz Hill. JTWC reported 22 homes damaged or destroyed in southern Guam and no deaths. Kim peaked at 125 kt on 10 November, then struck central Luzon on the 13th at 115 kt, passing about 35 nm north of Manila, and left the island seven hours later at 65 kt. Floods killed 55 people and a hotel fire during the storm killed 47 more, and PAGASA later retired its local name, Unding.

Typhoon Lucy developed near the equator in late November alongside a Southern Hemisphere cyclone and split into two disturbances near Truk before the halves rejoined. It peaked at 115 kt on 3 December and recurved at a low latitude. Typhoon Mary formed near 9N 177E on 19 December and travelled 4,002 nm over 15 days, which JTWC called the second longest distance on record. It looped near the Marshall Islands, peaked at 95 kt in the archive and weakened steadily on its long run west, dying over the central Philippines near Leyte Gulf in early January 1978.