1982 Pacific typhoon season

Fewer storms, more typhoons

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center logged 28 tropical cyclones in 1982, three and a half below the annual average, and called it the fourth straight below-average year. The storms that did form were strong. Only two stayed depressions and seven peaked as tropical storms, while 19 reached typhoon strength, the most since 1972. Bess and Mac crossed the 130 kt super typhoon threshold.

The site's archive counts 25 tropical storms, 19 typhoons and 12 major typhoons, with accumulated cyclone energy of 352.9. The JTWC list has one more storm because it warned separately on Tess and Val, which the Japan Meteorological Agency treated as one system and which the archive also keeps as a single track. The season was average in storm numbers but high in typhoons.

The busiest March since 1967

Three storms formed in March, the most for that month since 1967. Tropical Storm Mamie was a compact system under 90 nautical miles across that few stations detected; the JTWC credited satellites and aircraft with tracking it to landfall on Mindanao, where initial reports cited about 40 dead. Later totals give 117 deaths in the Philippines and $100 million in damage in 1982 dollars, with Surigao del Sur hardest hit.

Typhoon Nelson became the first typhoon of the year on 21 March in the archive, peaked at 105 kt on 25 March and crossed the south-central Philippines two days later; later totals give 56 deaths. Typhoon Odessa wandered east and then west in early April. Typhoon Pat was the only cyclone between April and late June, turning north near the Philippines and becoming extratropical near Japan.

Andy and Bess from one monsoon trough

In late July the monsoon trough split into segments that became Typhoon Andy and Typhoon Bess. Andy reached 120 kt on 27 July and stayed above 100 kt until it struck southern Taiwan on 29 July, where floods caused heavy damage along the east coast. It killed 13 people in Taiwan. Andy crossed the Formosa Strait and died in southeastern China on 30 July.

Bess formed near Kwajalein, stalled and turned southwest, then intensified to 140 kt on 29 July. It weakened steadily as it turned north and crossed central Honshu on 1 August. The JTWC reported 1,557 landslides, more than 27,000 homes flooded, 25,000 people left homeless and 59 dead, with over 100 bridges washed out. Later accounts raise the toll to 95 deaths and damage of 591.6 billion yen, about US$2.38 billion at the time, and the name Bess was retired.

Cecil and Ellis soak Korea and Japan

Typhoon Cecil intensified from 35 kt to 115 kt between 6 and 8 August and peaked at 125 kt about 120 nautical miles east of Taiwan. It never came within 80 nautical miles of the island, yet its outer rain set off landslides that killed at least 19 people near Taipei. Cecil reached Korea on 14 August with 35 kt winds, and up to 55 cm of rain there left 35 dead, 28 missing and about $30 million in property damage, according to the JTWC.

Typhoon Ellis peaked at 125 kt in the archive on 23 August, then weakened through an eyewall replacement and over cooler water before crossing Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu. Up to 711 mm of rain fell in southwest Japan, where five people died, plus three dead and five missing in South Korea. Typhoon Faye struck Luzon on 25 August, where 32 people died, then drifted for more than a week between Ellis and Gordon.

Judy and Ken strike Japan in September

Typhoon Irving crossed southern Luzon as a strong tropical storm on 8 September, and later totals give 65 deaths in the Philippines. Typhoon Judy formed alongside it, raced north and came ashore on Honshu southeast of Nagoya on 12 September. The JTWC reported at least 25 dead and more than 61,000 houses damaged by rain and floods from Osaka to Hokkaido.

Typhoon Ken peaked at 110 kt, stalled, and then ran northeast past Okinawa to strike Shikoku on 25 September, the fourth typhoon to hit Japan that year. Mudslides damaged thousands of homes and killed five people.

Mac's rebound and Nancy's toll

Typhoon Mac passed Guam as a 60 kt storm on 3 October, but its compact wind field kept Nimitz Hill, 24 nautical miles from the center, to sustained winds of 30 kt. Guam's Department of Agriculture put crop damage at $1.5 million. Mac then strengthened from 60 kt to 140 kt and reached the season's lowest pressure, 895 hPa, on 5 October. The JTWC noted a dewpoint depression of 28°C, one of the largest ever recorded in a tropical cyclone, and a return to super typhoon strength, only the sixth such case since 1958. Mac recurved and became extratropical without a landfall.

Typhoon Nancy was the most intense typhoon to strike the Philippines in 1982. It peaked at 115 kt six hours before landfall on northeastern Luzon, where the JTWC reported at least 110 dead, 12,000 homeless and an estimated $46 million in damage. Nancy regained typhoon strength over the South China Sea and crossed the Vietnamese coast north of Vinh on 18 October, killing at least 71 people, leaving 194,200 homeless and ruining 48,000 hectares of rice ready for harvest.

Owen, Pamela and Roger

Typhoon Owen closed a 14-week run of steady activity in late October, turning extratropical, becoming tropical again and wandering over 6,600 km southeast of Japan. Typhoon Pamela formed in late November, reached 100 kt on 27 November near the Marshall Islands, passed Guam as a weakened storm and struck the Philippines in early December. Typhoon Roger formed in Pamela's wake and faded along the Philippine coast, with the archive's last tropical-stage observation on 11 December.