1994 Pacific typhoon season

The busiest year since 1967 under a developing El Niño

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center counted 41 significant cyclones in the western North Pacific in 1994, tying 1967 for the most in its records: 6 super typhoons, 16 other typhoons, 15 tropical storms and 5 depressions. Its 36 named storms were eight above the 1960 to 1994 average, and for the first time in its history the center issued more than 1,000 warnings in the basin, 1,058 in all.

Counts differ with definitions and basin boundaries. Other season lists describe 36 tropical storms and 20 typhoons, and JTWC's total includes Li and John, which formed in the eastern North Pacific, and Yuri, which grew from a low that crossed the date line. None of those three appears in the site's storm list for this season. The site counts 33 tropical storms and 20 typhoons from US-agency one-minute winds during the tropical stage within the calendar year, and its accumulated cyclone energy of 434.1 is the highest of the early 1990s seasons on the site.

Sea surface temperatures near the date line stayed warmer than normal and the Southern Oscillation Index was strongly negative for most of the year. From September, monsoon westerlies pushed far east, and by December they reached near 160°W; forecasters declared an El Niño under way. Several storms formed east of 160°E as a result, but four formed in the South China Sea, so the year's average formation point ended up near normal.

JTWC singled out three episodes, in July, September and October, when the monsoon trough took a reverse, southwest-to-northeast orientation. Storms along a reversed trough tend to move north and interact with one another. Of the 39 cyclones that formed in the basin, 13 took north-oriented tracks and only 6 recurved in the classic way, and ten of those 13 formed during the reversed-trough episodes.

Russ, Sharon and the June floods in southern China

The year began with a tropical depression that struck Samar on 5 January; it killed 35 to 45 people. Typhoon Owen became the first typhoon on 3 April and crossed the central Philippines on an unusual west-southwestward track, and JTWC recorded three people killed and four missing there. Typhoon Page reached its 90 kt peak in mid-May only after recurving, and stayed at sea.

Tropical Storm Russ formed near Hainan in early June and looped before landfall on the Luichow Peninsula on 8 June. Tropical Storm Sharon crossed Luzon, releasing mudflows from Mount Pinatubo, and came ashore about 110 km east of Russ's landfall on 25 June. A depression, 07W, followed in early July. JTWC reported that the combined flooding left more than 1,400 people dead and destroyed nearly one million houses in southern China, with damage above $6 billion. Russ alone caused at least 74 deaths.

Tim over Taiwan and July's reversed trough

Typhoon Tim intensified rapidly in early July and peaked at 125 kt in the archive on 10 July, absorbing the smaller Tropical Storm Vanessa. It struck Taiwan about 200 km south of Taipei late that day, then crossed into Fujian. It left at least 19 dead and 11 missing in Taiwan, three dead in Fujian and 14 in the Philippines.

By mid-July the monsoon trough had reversed from the South China Sea to near the date line. Typhoon Walt, Typhoon Zeke and Tropical Storm Yunya formed along it and all moved north, each with unusual eastward motion. Walt peaked at 130 kt in the archive on 19 July and later reached Shikoku as a tropical storm. Yunya crossed Luzon and set off more lahars on Pinatubo; it killed at least 11 people there.

Typhoon Doug and Typhoon Fred's surge at Wenzhou

Typhoon Doug formed at the eastern end of the monsoon trough on 30 July and intensified rapidly, reaching 140 kt on 5 August, the season's highest wind. It weakened before brushing northern Taiwan around 7 and 8 August, where the anemometer on Yonaguni failed at a 136 kt gust. JTWC reported at least 19 deaths and more than $110 million in damage in Taiwan, in 1994 dollars, and later totals give 26 deaths. Doug then looped in the Yellow Sea and faded as it neared the Shanghai area.

Typhoon Fred strengthened steadily rather than in a burst, reaching 130 kt in the archive on 19 August. It weakened to about 85 kt before landfall near Wenzhou in Zhejiang on 21 August, and its arrival coincided with an unusually high astronomical tide. City officials quoted in JTWC's report estimated 1,000 deaths in Wenzhou alone, 100,000 homes demolished, 700,000 damaged and more than two million people cut off, with economic losses possibly topping $1.2 billion.

Typhoon Gladys struck northern Taiwan in late August after it re-strengthened; JTWC recorded six deaths. Tropical Storm Caitlin had crossed Taiwan earlier in August, killing ten people there. John, a long-lived hurricane from the eastern Pacific, crossed into the basin as a typhoon on 28 August; JTWC called it the longest-lived tropical cyclone on record, with 120 warnings over 31 days from three centers.

Melissa, Orchid and a first-ever merger

The trough reversed again for two weeks in mid-September, and five cyclones formed along it, all moving north. Typhoon Melissa grew from a monsoon depression near the date line in waters warmed by the prolonged El Niño, and the archive records 135 kt and 910 hPa on 15 September, the season's lowest pressure. Typhoon Orchid also reached 135 kt, then crossed Honshu on 29 September as a typhoon; it killed nine people in Japan.

Typhoon Pat and Tropical Storm Ruth circled each other late in September and merged into one system, the first binary interaction JTWC had recorded ending that way. In October Typhoon Seth reached 120 kt and 910 hPa in the archive, missed Taiwan to the east and crossed Korea, where its rain eased a drought. Typhoon Teresa crossed the central Philippines just south of Manila, and heavy seas in its wake sank the Maltese tanker Thanassis A in the South China Sea, leaving 17 dead or missing.

Typhoon Verne stalled for nearly a week in late October and became the season's longest-lived storm in the archive, with Typhoon Wilda stalling northeast of Saipan beside it. Typhoon Zelda then looped through the Northern Mariana Islands and reached 135 kt in the archive on 4 November. JTWC reported that Zelda severely hit Saipan and Anatahan.

Typhoon Axel closed the year, peaking at 115 kt on 20 December and crossing the central Philippines south of Samar. Floodwater breached a dam at Bacolod City and drowned five people, and waves destroyed 163 houses on Mindanao. JTWC reported 1,443 houses destroyed and at least 7,930 people homeless, and later totals give 44 dead.