Ivan put this list together.
Oct 22, 1882
“Observatory says lowest barometer at 11.40 a. m., 727.60 ; highest velocity wind registered, 144.4 miles an hour. Unable to measure greatest velocity of typhoon as anemometer damaged.”
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/38278695
The Philippines government says that the top speed today was 146 MPH.
Oct 21, 1897
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/14101833Dec 16, 1900
“A terrific cyclone was encountered on December 16, when the vessel was to the eastward of the Philippines. The tempest raged for three days, and the vessel was absolutely uncontrollable.”
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/14356766Sep 27, 1905
TYPHOON AT MANILA. THOUSANDS HOMELESS.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/4965581Sep 20, 1906
Destructive Typhoon in the Philippines.Vessels wrecked.1000 lives lost in Hongkong.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/434346110 Jan 1907
TYPHOON IN THE PHILIPPINES. A HUNDRED MEN KILLED.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/505295423 Sep 1908
TYPHOON IN THE PHILIPPINES.GREAT LOSS OF LIFE.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/518734819 Oct 1912
GREAT TYPHOON.Heavy Loss of Life.Damage of £5,000,000.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/1051864230 Nov 1912
A BIG TYPHOON.DEVASTATION IN THE PHILIPPINES.THOUSANDS KILLED.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/535589412 May 1913
TYPHOON IN PHILIPPINES.FIFTY-EIGHT LIVES LOST.EXTENSIVE DAMAGE.
The typhoon was the most severe experienced for eight years.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/9093451727 Oct 1915
PHILIPPINES TYPHOON.A TOWN WIPED OUT.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/104340663 Sep 1920
TYPHOON IN PHILIPPINES.MUCH DAMAGE DONE.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/1149038112 June 1923
Disastrous Typhoon.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/200847027 June 1925
TYPHOON IN PHILIPPINES. ELEVEN PEOPLE KILLED.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/8405228028 Nov 1928
The Philippines have been swept by a typhoon described as the worst known for years.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2931961710 Dec 1938
TYPHOON RAVAGES PHILLIPINES. HUNDREDS HOMELESS.
trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/76063407
I thought they get hit by about 2 or 3 typhoons a year. Though I don’t know what it takes to be a super typhoon.
On earth there isn’t any such beast. A “super” anything would have to be really unprecedented. For a storm, say they had to add a category level to assimilate it. Currently the system stops at Cat 5 so a storm that required a “Cat 6” rating might justify the adjective “super.” Otherwise, “super” is merely Chicken Little speak.
BBC keep the children informed –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/24863424
Shock news. Typhoon is a Chinese word and it means big wind. The word is thousands of years old.
FYI: The English word typhoon could have originated from Persian توفان tūfān (storm), (which is pronounced “tufoon” in the Bandari dialect of Persian, spoken on the shores of the Persian Gulf [2] from the verb tūfīdan (Persian: توفیدن/طوفیدن means “to roar”, “to blow furiously”[3]) – a cyclonic storm, a cognate of Sanskrit “tanun” meaning high or agitated winds. It also appears to have contributed to the Chinese word 大風 dàfēng meaning “great wind” as spoken in southern Chinese dialects such as Hakka and Cantonese. The modern way of writing typhoon in Chinese (simplified Chinese: 台风; traditional Chinese: 颱風; pinyin: táifēng), as well as in Japanese (台風, pronounced taifū), uses a different first character, however, and may have come about based on the re-importing of the word from English. (Another theory is that the initial tai syllable of the word was a reference to Taiwan, where, from the point of view of mainland China, the winds came from.) Another possible etymology of typhoon is from the Greek word τύφειν (týphein), meaning “to smoke” (see also Typhon), to describe the cyclonic storms of the Indian Ocean.[4] Typhoon is the regional name in the northwest Pacific for a severe (or mature) tropical cyclone,[5] whereas hurricane is the regional term in the northeast Pacific and northern Atlantic. Elsewhere this is called a tropical cyclone, severe tropical cyclone, or severe cyclonic storm.[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon#Etymology_and_usage
All them during the “cool years” of the beginning of the XX century… interesting!
except 1882… but I think it was also “cool” in the 1880’s! 🙂
I saw a contender for the stupidest alarmist comment of the year about this typhoon.
The comment in part –
“There have only been a handful of storms anywhere on Earth (pdf) that have reached this estimated intensity—and only three since 1969. Such strong storms usually remain out at sea where wind speed verification is impossible without aircraft. It’s possible Haiyan could become the strongest storm ever recorded to make landfall, anywhere on Earth.”
Last time I checked the Philippines are a group of islands located “out to sea” – exposed to the east to the vastness of the tropical Pacific and located wholly within the tropics.
As evidenced by the research and Google Maps the Philippines are “ground zero” for typhoons with or without global warming.
The New York Times accidentally gave away the game, slipping in the facts on the storm well down the page in its story on the poor disaster response after the storm:
“…the sea level rose as much as four meters, or 13 feet. Winds exceeding 140 miles an hour…”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/13/world/asia/anger-rising-over-conditions-in-tacloban-ravaged-philippine-city.html?hp&_r=0
13 foot storm surge and 140mph winds.
Definitely strong. Not quite 235mph, or even 195mph, though.
As for the estimates of 10,000 dead in Tacloban?
The mayor of Tacloban says:
“Mr. Romualdez said that he had personally lost everything, including his house. But he suggested that reports of damage to his own city might have been exaggerated, saying that only a couple hundred deaths had been confirmed by the authorities.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/13/world/asia/anger-rising-over-conditions-in-tacloban-ravaged-philippine-city.html?pagewanted=2&hp
Tragic, yes. Unprecedented? Sadly, no.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Cobra_(1944)
The above references a typhoon which struck Admiral Halsey’s 3rd Fleet on Dec 18, 1944 sinking three US Destroyers with a loss of life of 792 men along with damaging a number of other vessels.
The fleet had been carrying out raids on the Philippines in preparation for the invasion.
On average, 20+ typhoons hit the Philippines every year. Haiyan/Yolanda is the 24th to hit the country in 2013.
But “It’s probably the strongest to hit land in recorded history with sustained winds of 315 kph (195 mph) and gusts as strong as 380 kph (235 mph)”
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/07/world/asia/philippines-typhoon-haiyan/
You should probably get your news from a more respectable source than CNN.
Before the typhoon made landfall, some international forecasters were estimating wind speeds at 195 m.p.h., which would have meant the storm would hit with winds among the strongest recorded. But local forecasters later disputed those estimates. “Some of the reports of wind speeds were exaggerated,” Mr. Paciente said.
The Philippine weather agency measured winds on the eastern edge of the country at about 150 m.p.h., he said, with some tracking stations recording speeds as low as 100 m.p.h.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/09/world/asia/powerful-typhoon-causes-mass-disruption-in-philippines.html?_r=0
Is there any super typhoons from 1938 to 1946?