2014 Pacific typhoon season

Season overview

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) described 2014 as another below-average year in the western North Pacific, with 23 cyclones warned on against a long-term average of 31. What the season lacked in numbers it made up in intensity. The onset of El Niño conditions shifted storm formation eastward, so many cyclones began far out over open ocean and had more time to strengthen before reaching land.

That eastward shift also changed who was affected. The JTWC counted two direct strikes on Okinawa and two more passages within 300 miles, three cyclones passing within 300 miles of Guam and four affecting mainland Japan. Accumulated cyclone energy in the archive reached 252.9, short of the 1965 to 2013 average of 295 used by the Tropical Storm Risk consortium, whose forecasts had called for a more active year.

How the season unfolded

Activity began unusually early. Lingling formed in mid-January and stayed a depression in the archive, and Tropical Storm Kajiki followed at the end of the month; both affected the Philippines. Typhoon Faxai became the first typhoon on March 4 well east of Guam, where large swells claimed a life. Tropical Storm Peipah followed in April and Typhoon Tapah briefly reached 70 knots at the end of the month, before a lull through May. June brought only two weak systems, Mitag south of Taiwan and Tropical Storm Hagibis, which came ashore in southern China.

July changed the pace. Typhoon Neoguri, Typhoon Rammasun, Typhoon Matmo and Typhoon Halong all formed within four weeks, three of them becoming Category 5 storms, and Tropical Storm Nakri tracked through the Ryukyu Islands toward Korea at the same time. Almost every July system reached land.

Then activity collapsed. Apart from Halong's long decay toward Japan, August produced nothing above tropical storm strength in the western Pacific, which the Tropical Storm Risk verification attributed to an unusually strong and persistent suppressing phase of the Madden-Julian oscillation. Hurricane Genevieve crossed the date line from the central Pacific in early August and briefly became a super typhoon, but it is not among this season's archived storms.

Conditions improved in September. Typhoon Fengshen stayed at sea, while Typhoon Kalmaegi and Tropical Storm Fung-Wong crossed northern Luzon within a week of each other and Tropical Storm Kammuri formed farther east. From late September the season turned powerful again: Typhoon Phanfone and Typhoon Vongfong both became intense typhoons heading for Japan, Typhoon Nuri peaked in early November, and Typhoon Hagupit reached Category 5 in early December. Tropical Storm Sinlaku crossed the Visayas as a depression in late November before reaching Vietnam, and Tropical Storm Jangmi formed on December 27 and lasted into January 1, 2015.

Strongest storms

Six storms reached Category 5 on one-minute winds, the most in the basin since 1997 by Wikipedia's reckoning. Three shared the season's top intensity of 155 knots and 907 hPa: Typhoon Vongfong on October 7, Typhoon Nuri on November 2 and Typhoon Hagupit on December 4. Vongfong is ranked strongest in the archive; it held its peak for more than a day east of the Philippines before an eyewall replacement cycle began its decline.

The July trio each peaked at 140 knots and 918 hPa. Neoguri reached that strength early on July 7 on its way toward Okinawa, and Halong on August 2 east of the Philippines; Halong also lasted longer than any other storm of the year. Rammasun was the exception to the open-ocean pattern. It weakened crossing the Philippines, then reorganized over the South China Sea and peaked on July 18 as it approached Hainan, one of only a handful of Category 5 typhoons recorded in that sea. Typhoon Phanfone fell just short, peaking at 135 knots on October 4.

Nuri never crossed land. It turned northeastward, lost its eye to strengthening wind shear and became extratropical on November 6, and its remains were absorbed into the powerful Bering Sea storm that followed.

Notable landfalls and impacts

Rammasun, known in the Philippines as Glenda, was the season's most destructive storm. It struck Albay on July 15 as a Category 4 typhoon, then clipped Hainan and made landfall in Guangxi. Wikipedia credits it with about 200 deaths and roughly US$8 billion in damage across the Philippines and China (total, 2014 US dollars).

The Philippines were struck repeatedly. Lingling's rains in January caused 70 deaths on Mindanao, mostly from landslides and drowning, and about US$12.6 million in damage. In September, Kalmaegi killed 12 people with about US$27.3 million in Philippine damage before striking Hainan and southern China, where it caused 11 deaths and about US$2.89 billion in losses, and Vietnam, where 13 died. Days later Fung-Wong, enhanced by the southwest monsoon, brought Metro Manila its worst flooding since 2009, with 18 deaths and about US$76.4 million in Philippine damage. Hagupit weakened before landfall in Eastern Samar on December 6 but still caused 18 deaths and about US$114 million in damage, and Jangmi's December flooding in the southern Philippines left 66 dead. All damage figures are 2014 US dollars as reported by national agencies and cited by Wikipedia.

Japan faced a series of blows. Neoguri forced about 670,000 evacuations and caused three deaths and roughly US$632 million in damage. Nakri and Halong together brought record short-duration rainfall and about US$870 million in losses in August. Phanfone disrupted the Japanese Grand Prix and caused about US$100 million in economic losses, and a week later Vongfong crossed Okinawa and the main islands, injuring at least 96 people and causing about US$111 million in agricultural damage (all 2014 US dollars). Farther west, Matmo struck Hualien in Taiwan on July 22 at typhoon strength before moving into mainland China.

Retired names and agency counts

The ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee retired the name Rammasun after the season, later replacing it with Bualoi. PAGASA retired Glenda, Jose, Mario, Ruby and Seniang, the local names of Rammasun, Halong, Fung-Wong, Hagupit and Jangmi, because each caused more than PHP 1 billion in damage. Jangmi was also the first western Pacific storm to span two calendar years since Typhoon Soulik in 2000.

Other tallies differ because they measure differently. The Japan Meteorological Agency, using ten-minute winds, counted 23 tropical storms and 11 typhoons; it named Lingling and Mitag, which never reach 34 knots on the one-minute US-agency winds used here, and its figures include Genevieve. Its lower ten-minute winds also kept Tapah and Fengshen below typhoon strength. The JTWC, counting from its own warnings, reported 22 tropical storms and 13 typhoons, again including Genevieve, and Wikipedia's seven Category 5 storms add Genevieve to the six on this map.