1993 Pacific typhoon season

El Niño and storms born near the equator

El Niño conditions held across the tropical Pacific for most of 1993. Eastern equatorial sea surface temperatures stayed above normal and the Southern Oscillation Index remained negative until late in the year. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center found that monsoon westerlies reached farther east than usual, so many storms formed in the eastern Caroline and Marshall Islands, and the year's average formation point was the southernmost in its 1970 to 1993 record. Eight of the first nine cyclones formed south of 10°N.

Those low-latitude, westward tracks sent storms toward the Philippines and Vietnam. JTWC counted 18 cyclones that made landfall in the Philippines, a record. A persistent Mei-yu front, the early-summer rain band of East Asia, lingered into August and combined with several typhoons to give Japan a cool, wet summer.

JTWC tracked 38 significant cyclones, the most since 1967: 21 typhoons including 3 super typhoons, 9 tropical storms and 8 depressions, with 30 named. Other season lists give 28 tropical storms and 15 typhoons from a mix of JTWC and Japan Meteorological Agency ten-minute data. The site counts 28 tropical storms and 20 typhoons from US-agency one-minute winds during the tropical stage within the calendar year, and its ACE is 244.6. Keoni, which crossed from the central Pacific in August, is not in the site's list for this season.

Typhoon Koryn opens the typhoon season in June

Weak depressions and Tropical Storm Irma filled the spring, several of them crossing Mindanao. Typhoon Koryn then formed near 4°N in mid-June and became the year's first typhoon. It reached 130 kt on 24 June, and the archive records 905 hPa, the lowest pressure of the season. Koryn crossed northern Luzon the next day at about 130 mph, then hit southern China southwest of Hong Kong on 27 June.

Koryn's rain set off floods and landslides on Luzon that left at least 28 people dead, and JTWC put crop, infrastructure and housing losses there at more than $14.5 million. In Hong Kong at least 183 people were injured. Later totals give a wider toll of 37 deaths.

Seven landfalls on Japan in six weeks

From the last week of July to the first week of September, 7 of the 12 cyclones that formed made landfall in Japan, beginning with Tropical Storm Nathan. A monsoon gyre over the Philippine Sea steered Nathan north, then spawned two very small storms, Tropical Storm Ofelia and Typhoon Percy, which also ran north over southwestern Japan. Nathan was linked to 47 deaths in Kochi Prefecture.

Typhoon Robyn grew into a large storm, peaked at 120 kt in the archive on 7 August and weakened before it reached southwestern Japan on 9 August. Press reports cited by JTWC counted more than 45 storm-related deaths, 39 of them in road accidents during the heavy rain, and more than $68 million in wave and flood losses, with 6 to 11 m waves on the southern Korean coast.

Typhoon Yancy peaked at 130 kt in the archive on 2 September after rapid strengthening near Okinawa. JTWC estimated sustained winds of 115 kt when it struck southern Kyushu on 3 September, and Kanoya reported gusts of 129 kt. JTWC recorded 42 deaths, 27 of them in Kagoshima Prefecture, plus 155 injuries and 400,000 homes without power. Typhoon Vernon and Tropical Storm Zola also came ashore in Japan in the same period, with Vernon's rain setting a 24-hour record of 319 mm at Mount Zaō.

Tasha, Abe, Becky and Dot on the south China coast

A cluster of storms struck Guangdong from August to September. Typhoon Tasha caused one death, and Typhoon Abe, which peaked at 110 kt in the archive, killed 11 people in Shantou and Jieyang. Typhoon Becky, a 65 kt storm in the archive, passed about 110 km from Hong Kong's observatory with hurricane-force hourly winds offshore; JTWC attributed seven deaths and 60 missing near Hong Kong to it. Typhoon Dot then struck western Guangdong, where it killed two people and damaged 31,000 homes.

Typhoon Ed and its duel with Flo

Typhoon Ed grew from a depression to a super typhoon within five days and peaked at 140 kt on 4 October, the season's highest wind, with 915 hPa early the next day. It stayed over the Philippine Sea and recurved south of Japan. JTWC listed Ed's contest with neighboring Typhoon Flo, a Fujiwhara interaction in which the two storms rotated around each other, among the highlights of the year.

Flo struck northern Luzon on 4 October as a minimal typhoon and stalled offshore before the interaction with Ed pulled it northeast. Its lingering rain flooded Luzon, where press reports cited by JTWC counted at least 50 people killed or missing and more than 300,000 evacuated. Later totals give a much higher toll of at least 500 deaths. Cecil, Gene and Hattie also recurved well offshore; JTWC noted Hattie's unusual 1,100-nautical-mile circulation with several centers.

Lola, Manny and Nell close the year in the Philippines

After late October every storm formed near or south of 10°N and tracked west, and six of the last eight made landfall in the Philippines. Typhoon Ira crossed the central islands and reached Hong Kong, where it has been linked to a China Airlines jet sliding off the Kai Tak runway. Typhoon Kyle crossed the Philippines and hit southern Vietnam; news sources cited by JTWC reported 106 deaths and 59 missing in four Vietnamese provinces.

Typhoon Lola struck the Bicol region of southern Luzon in early December, peaking at 105 kt in the archive on 8 December after it re-intensified over the South China Sea, which JTWC called rare, before striking southern Vietnam. JTWC reported over 230 deaths in the Philippines, more than 583,000 people displaced, and 78 dead with 78 missing in Vietnam. The Philippine name Monang was later retired.

Typhoon Manny formed days later in the eastern Caroline Islands, looped east of Luzon and then rapidly strengthened on a southwestward course into the Philippines, peaking at 120 kt in the archive. Later totals give 230 deaths. Typhoon Nell, a small storm, struck northern Mindanao and crossed the Visayas before dissipating over the South China Sea; JTWC recorded seven deaths, six at Surigao City, while later totals give 167 dead. The archive's last tropical-stage observation of the season falls on 1 January 1994.