2006 Pacific typhoon season

Season overview

By number, 2006 was a modest year for the western Pacific. The Japan Meteorological Agency named 23 storms, fewer than the 1965 to 2005 average of about 27 tropical storms and 17 typhoons used by the Tropical Storm Risk consortium. What the season lacked in numbers it made up in intensity: Tropical Storm Risk found that the share of typhoons reaching intense strength was the highest since 1970, and the archive's accumulated cyclone energy of 268.6 reflects several long-lived, very strong systems.

Seasonal forecasts had expected slightly above-normal activity, citing warming sea surface temperatures in the central equatorial Pacific. NOAA later placed the start of a weak El Niño in mid-2006, around the time tropical development became more favourable in late June. Most storms formed in the second half of the year, and many tracked west into the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Vietnam rather than recurving harmlessly over open water.

How the season unfolded

The year opened with a brief, unnamed tropical storm southeast of Palau in early March, which the Joint Typhoon Warning Center tracked as 01W before wind shear weakened it within days. The basin then went quiet until May, when Typhoon Chanchu crossed the central Philippines, reached typhoon strength on May 10 and strengthened to Category 4 over the South China Sea before turning toward southern China.

Development picked up in late June with Tropical Storm Jelawat and Typhoon Ewiniar. From mid-July to early August, Tropical Storm Bilis, Typhoon Kaemi and Typhoon Prapiroon came ashore in China one after another. August was the busiest stretch: Typhoon Saomai, Tropical Storm Maria and Tropical Storm Bopha were active at the same time, followed by Tropical Storms Wukong and Sonamu, which interacted before Wukong reached Kyushu.

September brought Typhoon Shanshan toward the Yaeyama Islands and Japan, the looping Typhoon Yagi in the open Pacific and Typhoon Xangsane across the Philippines and into Vietnam. October added Typhoon Soulik near Iwo Jima and Typhoon Cimaron. The season then kept going well past its usual peak: Typhoon Chebi and Typhoon Durian struck the Philippines in November, Typhoon Utor followed in December, and the last tropical-stage observation in the archive came on December 20 as the weak Trami faded east of the Philippines.

Strongest storms

Three storms share the top of the archive at 140 kt one-minute winds and 898 hPa, all Category 5: Typhoon Saomai on August 9, Typhoon Yagi on September 21 and Typhoon Cimaron on October 29. Saomai is listed as the season's strongest by the archive. It intensified explosively west of the Marianas, while Yagi completed a clockwise loop in weak steering currents before peaking far from land and Cimaron deepened rapidly just before striking northern Luzon.

Just behind them, Typhoon Durian peaked at 135 kt on November 29 and Typhoon Ewiniar at 130 kt in early July. Typhoon Chanchu, Typhoon Xangsane and Typhoon Chebi each reached 125 kt, Typhoon Shanshan 120 kt and Typhoon Utor 100 kt, rounding out the ten major typhoons. Chebi's jump was among the most abrupt of the year: the Japan Meteorological Agency raised it from a severe tropical storm to a typhoon as its pressure fell 40 hPa in three hours. Durian also had the longest track in the archive, with more than two weeks of recorded positions.

A punishing summer for China

Southern and eastern China took repeated blows. Tropical Storm Bilis never reached typhoon strength, yet its heavy rain flooded the Philippines, Taiwan and mainland China after landfall in Fujian on July 14, causing 672 deaths and $4.4 billion in damage (2006 US dollars), making it the costliest storm of the season. Typhoon Kaemi reached Fujian on July 25 as a minimal typhoon, killing at least 32 people in China with another 60 missing. Typhoon Prapiroon forced some 660,000 evacuations in Guangdong, killed 77 people and caused about 5.4 billion yuan in damage.

Typhoon Saomai then struck Zhejiang on August 10 with a small, intense core, the most powerful typhoon to hit mainland China in at least half a century. Its wind and rain fell on areas still recovering from Bilis, and it was blamed for 456 deaths, mostly in China, and about $2.5 billion in damage in 2006 US dollars. Earlier, Typhoon Chanchu's approach in May had caused about 7 billion yuan in damage in China after killing 41 people in the Philippines and 18 fishermen at sea off Vietnam.

Japan and Korea

Typhoon Ewiniar weakened over cooler water before reaching South Korea on July 10 as a severe tropical storm, passing close to Seoul. Its rain set off floods and mudslides that killed at least six people there, after the storm had earlier been blamed for at least 30 deaths in China. In September, Typhoon Shanshan passed through the Yaeyama Islands, where gusts on Iriomote reached about 155 mph, before turning toward Kyushu. More than 90,000 people evacuated in Yamaguchi Prefecture, a tornado derailed a train in Nobeoka, and the storm killed 11 people, two of them in South Korea.

Typhoon Yagi passed near Iwo Jima and directly over Chichi-jima on its way northeast. On Chichi-jima, about 1,000 homes lost power, roughly 150 residents took shelter, roofs and windows were damaged and at least one structure was destroyed, though no deaths or injuries were reported. Typhoon Soulik lingered near Iwo Jima for more than a day in October, bringing typhoon-force gusts but no reported damage.

The Philippines and Vietnam

Six typhoons affected the Philippines in 2006, the most since 1974. Typhoon Xangsane crossed Luzon in late September as the strongest storm to affect Manila in 11 years, closing schools, markets and government offices and killing more than 200 people in the country. It went on to strike Da Nang on October 1, where it killed 72 people in Vietnam.

The late season hit the same northern and eastern coasts again and again. Typhoon Cimaron struck northern Luzon on October 29 near its peak, and Typhoon Chebi came ashore near Casiguran in Aurora province on November 11, cutting roads in an area still reeling from Cimaron. For the third time in a row, forecasters raised Public Storm Warning Signal No. 4, their highest level, as Typhoon Durian approached the Bicol region at the end of November.

Durian was the season's deadliest storm. Heavy rain sent mudflows of volcanic ash and boulders down the slopes of Mayon Volcano in Albay, burying parts of Legazpi City, and the storm killed at least 720 people in the Philippines. It then crossed the South China Sea and made landfall in Ben Tre province in southern Vietnam on December 5, where at least 81 people died. Typhoon Utor followed only days later, killing at least 78 people in the Philippines and forcing the postponement of the 2006 ASEAN and East Asia summits.

How the counts compare

The site's counts use one-minute winds from US agencies, so they differ from the Japan Meteorological Agency's 23 named storms and 15 typhoons, which rest on ten-minute winds. The archive includes the March storm, which JMA never named, but leaves out Rumbia and Trami, which JMA named but whose one-minute winds stayed at 30 kt. Maria counts as a typhoon for JMA but peaked at 60 kt in the one-minute record. The agencies also differ on the strongest storm: JMA ranked Yagi first, with 910 hPa and ten-minute winds of about 105 kt.

Hurricane Ioke, a Category 5 storm that formed in the central Pacific, crossed the International Date Line on August 27 and became Typhoon Ioke, passing close to Wake Island, where about 200 people were evacuated. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center lists it among its western Pacific super typhoons, but it does not appear among this season's storms here. Durian, meanwhile, survived into the Bay of Bengal, the first western Pacific storm to cross into the North Indian Ocean since 2003.