2022 Pacific typhoon season

Season overview

The year began with La Niña conditions that had persisted since 2020, and Tropical Storm Risk expected a slightly below-average season from its first outlook in May. As June passed without a named storm, the group cut its forecast of accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) from 293 to 217 in July and to 166 in August, well below the 1965 to 2021 average of 293. It was the third below-average season in a row in the basin.

By storm count the year was close to normal, but many of the storms were weak and brief, and total energy stayed low. On the site's measure the season generated an ACE of 154.6, in line with the reduced August outlook. The first tropical-stage observation came on 30 March and the last on 13 December, and much of the year's energy came from a handful of intense typhoons between late August and late September.

How the season unfolded

The season opened with a short-lived tropical storm west of Palawan at the end of March, designated 01W, which moved toward Vietnam and faded within a day. In early April two storms formed together: Typhoon Malakas became the season's first typhoon on 12 April and peaked at 105 knots over open water before turning northeast, while Tropical Storm Megi stalled over Leyte Gulf in the central Philippines. No tropical storm then formed for more than two months, through all of May and most of June.

Activity returned at the end of June, when Typhoon Chaba formed west of Luzon and struck Maoming in southern China on 2 July as Tropical Storm Aere moved past Okinawa. Late July and early August brought a string of weak systems, including Tropical Depression Songda and Tropical Storm Trases near Kyushu and Jeju Island, Tropical Storm Mulan across the South China Sea into northern Vietnam, and Tropical Storm Meari, which came ashore in Shizuoka Prefecture.

The season turned in late August. Typhoon Ma-On crossed northern Luzon and then struck southern China and Vietnam, and Typhoon Tokage peaked at 95 knots far from land. Typhoon Hinnamnor followed, and September was the busiest month of the year: Typhoon Muifa, Typhoon Merbok and Typhoon Nanmadol were all active on 13 September, and Tropical Storm Talas, Typhoon Noru, Typhoon Kulap and Typhoon Roke formed in the last ten days of the month.

October brought a cluster of smaller systems, among them Tropical Storm Sonca, which flooded central Vietnam, Typhoon Nesat, which crossed the South China Sea toward Hainan, and the short-lived Tropical Storm Haitang. Typhoon Nalgae crossed the Philippines at the end of the month while Tropical Storm Banyan weakened in strong wind shear near Palau. Tropical Storm Yamaneko stayed out to sea near Wake Island in November, and the season closed with Tropical Storm Pakhar east of Luzon in mid-December, torn apart by shear and dry air from the northeast monsoon.

Strongest storms

Typhoon Hinnamnor was the season's strongest storm. It formed southeast of Japan in late August, moved west and intensified rapidly, and after an eyewall replacement it stalled south of Okinawa and strengthened again. It reached its peak of 145 knots on 31 August, with a minimum pressure of 911 hPa, the lowest of the year. It then turned north through the East China Sea, regained major typhoon strength on 4 September and came ashore near Geoje in South Korea.

Typhoon Noru matched Hinnamnor's peak wind of 145 knots. After an early period of shear it underwent explosive intensification east of Luzon on 24 September, developing a pinhole eye and going from typhoon threshold to its peak in about 15 hours, with a minimum pressure of 914 hPa. It weakened as it struck the Polillo Islands and Aurora in Luzon, reintensified over the South China Sea and struck central Vietnam near Da Nang on 28 September.

Three more storms reached major typhoon strength. Typhoon Nanmadol peaked at 135 knots and 916 hPa on 16 September south of Japan before striking Kyushu, Typhoon Muifa peaked at 110 knots on 11 September before passing over Ishigaki Island, and Typhoon Malakas peaked at 105 knots in April. Muifa was also the season's longest-lived storm, with a track record of about 13 days.

Notable landfalls and impacts

The Philippines bore the heaviest toll. Tropical Storm Megi stalled over Leyte Gulf in April and brought flooding and landslides to Eastern Visayas, with 214 deaths, 134 people missing and damage of ₱4.72 billion (about US$90.8 million in 2022 dollars), making it the deadliest April storm on record in the country. Typhoon Nalgae made five landfalls across Bicol, Quezon and Marinduque in late October and passed over Metro Manila, killing at least 154 people in the Philippines, many of them in floods and landslides on Mindanao. Typhoon Noru killed 40 people in the Philippines with ₱3.38 billion (about US$68.7 million) in damage, then 9 more in Vietnam, where losses reached 5.776 trillion dong (about US$244 million).

In East Asia, Typhoon Hinnamnor's landfall in South Korea brought flooding that killed seven people in an underground parking garage in Pohang, and the season article's summary puts the storm's toll at 20 deaths and about US$1.8 billion in damage in 2022 dollars. Typhoon Nanmadol prompted a special warning from the Japan Meteorological Agency, with at least four million people advised to leave their homes; it killed at least two people in Japan, injured about 70 and cut power to more than 200,000. Days later Tropical Storm Talas dropped 30 to 42 cm of rain in twelve hours on parts of Shizuoka Prefecture, killing three people. Typhoon Muifa came ashore at Zhoushan and then Shanghai as the strongest typhoon on record to strike the city, suspending flights and port operations.

Smaller storms also did serious damage. Typhoon Chaba's winds split and sank a crane vessel southwest of Hong Kong, and the storm's reported death toll reached 27. Tropical Storm Sonca dropped about 700 mm of rain on Da Nang in 24 hours in mid-October, killing 10 people in central Vietnam with losses of about 2.4 trillion dong (US$101.5 million). Tropical Storm Pakhar's rain indirectly killed eight people in Tanay, Rizal, when flash flooding swept away a jeep. After Typhoon Merbok became extratropical, its remnant deepened over record-warm water near the Aleutian Islands and drove a storm surge along western Alaska, where water levels at Unalakleet peaked near 12.5 feet.

How the counts differ, and retired names

The site counts storms from US-agency one-minute winds during the tropical stage. The Japan Meteorological Agency, which names storms using ten-minute winds, recognized 25 tropical storms and only 10 typhoons, because Ma-On, Kulap and Nalgae stayed at severe tropical storm strength on its scale. Its 25 include Songda and Mulan, which the US agency held below tropical storm strength or treated as a monsoon depression, while the site's 24 include the unnamed March storm 01W. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center counted 25 tropical storms and 13 typhoons from its own warnings. Wind scales explain the strongest-storm difference too: on ten-minute winds the Japan Meteorological Agency ranked Nanmadol strongest, with 105 knots and 910 hPa.

In March 2023 the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee retired Megi, Ma-On, Hinnamnor, Noru and Nalgae for the deaths and damage they caused, and retired Malakas because it sounds like an offensive word in Greek. Hinnamnor, which had replaced Nock-ten, was used only once. PAGASA separately retired its local names Agaton, Florita, Karding and Paeng, given to Megi, Ma-On, Noru and Nalgae.