1992 Pacific typhoon season

A record warning year and three storms from the central Pacific

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued 941 warnings on 33 western North Pacific cyclones in 1992, 106 more than the year before and another record. It classed them as 5 super typhoons, 16 other typhoons, 11 tropical storms and 1 depression. For 28 days it tracked at least three storms at once, and for 5 days four. After Typhoon Omar knocked the Guam center out for 11 days, an alternate center wrote 73 of the warnings.

Several of JTWC's storms began outside the basin. Ekeka, Ward and Dan all formed east of the date line, the first year JTWC saw three significant cyclones cross into its area from the central North Pacific. Kent, Ward, Dan and Gay are absent from the site's storm list for this season, which gives 27 tropical storms and 18 typhoons from US-agency one-minute winds during the tropical stage. Other season lists count 32 named storms and 21 typhoons using JTWC and Japan Meteorological Agency data, and Colorado State University calculated an ACE of 470.1 from JTWC tracks, then a record. The site's own ACE for its storm list is 332.5.

Warm sea surface temperature anomalies in the central equatorial Pacific set the pattern early. In January they drove low-level westerlies from New Guinea into the central Pacific, which helped spin up Typhoon Axel and a Southern Hemisphere twin. JTWC traced every storm except Tropical Storm Helen to the monsoon trough or the near-equatorial trough; Helen grew from an upper-level trough low.

Axel in the Marshalls, then a run of storms into southern China

Typhoon Axel formed in early January and became the year's first typhoon on 8 January. Its early strengthening at low latitude battered the Marshall and eastern Caroline Islands. When it passed 30 km north of Pohnpei it cut the island's power for eight hours, and JTWC estimated a 15-foot storm surge on the offshore islands along with 247 mm of rain in a day.

Four quiet months followed. In late June the monsoon trough settled across the South China Sea and the Caroline Islands, and Typhoon Bobbie, Typhoon Chuck and Tropical Storm Deanna formed together. Bobbie peaked at 120 kt in the archive and drew torrential monsoon rain over the northern Philippines. Chuck crossed southern Hainan into northern Vietnam, where it killed at least 21 people and left 80 missing.

Typhoon Eli, Tropical Storm Faye and Typhoon Gary then followed nearly the same path across northern Luzon and the South China Sea in July. Gary came ashore near Hainan, and news reports cited by JTWC gave 26 deaths, 63 injuries and about $148 million in losses across Guangdong and Guangxi. Later totals give Gary a higher toll of at least 48 deaths.

August storms from Kyushu to Fujian

Typhoon Irving and Typhoon Janis struck southwestern Japan four days apart in early August. Janis peaked at 115 kt in the archive; JTWC reported one fisherman killed east of Taiwan and one death on Kyushu. Kent, the first super typhoon of the year by JTWC's reckoning, ran 58 warnings toward Japan, while Tropical Storm Lois, Tropical Storm Mark and Tropical Storm Nina formed around it in a four-storm outbreak.

Late in August the monsoon trough stretched far to the east, and Omar and Tropical Storm Polly formed side by side. Polly kept the structure of a monsoon depression, a broad ring of gales around a nearly calm core, and never reached typhoon strength. Its rains still proved deadly. JTWC recorded five deaths in lahars on Mount Pinatubo, at least eight in Taiwan and at least 165 in southeastern China, where 11,000 homes and 1,400 fishing boats were lost. Later totals give 202 deaths from Polly's floods and more than 5 million people left homeless in Fujian and Zhejiang.

Typhoon Omar's direct hit on Guam

Omar formed in the southern Marshall Islands on 20 August and intensified rapidly just before its eye crossed Guam on 28 August, with sustained winds JTWC put at 105 kt. It peaked afterward, reaching 130 kt and 920 hPa in the archive on 29 August over the Philippine Sea. Omar then weakened, crossed Taiwan as a tropical storm and faded over southeastern China.

JTWC called Omar the most damaging typhoon on Guam since 1976. It estimated $457 million in damage, over 2,158 homes destroyed or badly damaged and nearly 3,000 people in shelters. Omar wrecked most of the island's power grid, which shut down the water pumps, and two Navy supply ships broke their moorings and ran aground in Apra Harbor. About 200 people needed emergency treatment, and no deaths on Guam were attributed to the storm. Omar killed two people in Taiwan, and the name was later retired.

Yvette's reversal and a crowded October

Typhoon Ryan and Typhoon Sibyl formed at the far eastern end of the trough in early September. Ryan passed east of Japan but still damaged 3,128 homes in Hokkaido and killed one person. Typhoon Ted, held to minimal typhoon strength by wind shear, touched northern Luzon, Taiwan, eastern China and Korea; later totals give at least 61 dead and 51 missing.

Typhoon Yvette formed with Tropical Storm Zack in early October. It ran toward Luzon, stalled, reversed course by about 150 degrees and then strengthened again over open water. The archive records 155 kt late on 13 October and 915 hPa, the season's highest wind and lowest pressure, well away from the Philippines.

Typhoon Angela anchored another multiple outbreak in mid-October. It struck southern Vietnam, then reformed in the Gulf of Thailand, forcing crews off gas platforms; later totals give at least 49 deaths, mostly in Vietnam. Typhoon Brian passed over Guam as a midget typhoon, the island's second eye passage in two months, and Typhoon Colleen looped in the Philippine Sea before hitting central Vietnam. Dan, from east of the date line, did an estimated $9 million in damage on Wake Island.

Four typhoons past Guam in three months

Typhoon Elsie reached 145 kt in the archive on 5 November, the season's other Category 5 storm, and became the third typhoon in under three months to pass within about 100 km of Guam before it recurved south of Japan. Typhoon Forrest crossed the Philippines, the South China Sea and the Malay Peninsula, and JTWC placed its 125 kt peak in the Bay of Bengal after it had recurved.

Typhoon Hunt, also 125 kt in the archive, brushed Guam in mid-November. JTWC's Super Typhoon Gay followed: it left more than 5,000 people homeless in the northern Marshall Islands and destroyed nearly every structure on Wotho Atoll. JTWC estimated a pressure of 872 mb, the most intense storm in the basin since Tip in 1979. Gay then lost 99 mb in under 48 hours over open water as Hunt's outflow disrupted it, and its eye crossed Guam on 23 November, the record third eye passage there in less than three months.