This is a list of all
Pacific typhoon
A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...
s that have had their names retired from the international list of tropical cyclone names used in the Western Pacific Ocean. Since tropical cyclones started to be named in the basin after World War Two a total of 65
typhoon
A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...
names have been retired. Those typhoons that have their names retired tend to be exceptionally destructive storms. Several names were removed or altered
naming list for various reasons other than retirement. Collectively, the typhoons with retired names have caused over $108 billion in damage (
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
), as well as over 12,000 deaths.
Background
The practice of using names to identify tropical cyclones goes back several centuries, with systems named after places, saints or things they hit before the formal start of naming in the Western Pacific.
These included the
Kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...
,
1906 Hong Kong typhoon
The 1906 Hong Kong typhoon was a tropical cyclone that hit Hong Kong on 18 September 1906. The natural disaster caused property damage exceeding a million pounds sterling, affected international trade, and took the lives of around 15,000 peopl ...
,
1922 Swatow typhoon and the
1934 Muroto typhoon.
The practice of retiring significant names was started during 1955 by the
United States Weather Bureau
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the p ...
in the Northern Atlantic basin, after hurricanes
Carol,
Edna, and
Hazel
The hazel (''Corylus'') is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. (1999). ...
struck the
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the coa ...
and caused a significant amount of damage in the previous year.
Initially the names were only designed to be retired for ten years after which they might be reintroduced; however, it was decided at the 1969 Interdepartmental hurricane conference, that any significant hurricane in the future would have its name permanently retired.
The first tropical cyclone names to be retired in the Western Pacific were Lucille and Ophelia during 1960. Several names have been removed from the Pacific naming lists for various other reasons than causing a significant amount of death/destruction, which include being pronounced in a very similar way to other names and political reasons.
In 2000, the
Japan Meteorological Agency
The , abbreviated JMA, is an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It is charged with gathering and providing results for the public in Japan that are obtained from data based on daily scientific observation an ...
(JMA) began naming tropical cyclones from a list of 140 names, submitted by 14 countries. Previously, the JMA labeled storms with numbers, but not names. The JMA has been the official warning agency of the western Pacific Ocean since 1981, though other organizations have also tracked typhoons. The
Joint Typhoon Warning Center
The Joint typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) is a joint United States Navy – United States Air Force command in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The JTWC is responsible for the issuing of tropical cyclone warnings in the North-West Pacific Ocean, South P ...
(JTWC) unofficially named tropical cyclones from
1947
It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Events
January
* January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in ...
to
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
. During this time period, there were several pre-determined
tropical cyclone lists, in which many names were removed and replaced with others. The
(PAGASA) names tropical cyclones using a separate list, which is adjusted periodically.
Between 1947 and 2000, eleven names of significant tropical cyclones were retired from the list of names used by the United States
Joint Typhoon Warning Center
The Joint typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) is a joint United States Navy – United States Air Force command in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The JTWC is responsible for the issuing of tropical cyclone warnings in the North-West Pacific Ocean, South P ...
.
During this time other names were removed from the naming lists, including in 1979 when the lists of names used were revised to include both male and female names.
Tropical Storm Lucille was the first name to be retired for its impacts, while Ophelia was retired because of its long track.
At the 33rd session of the typhoon committee held in November 2000, the committee was informed that the
India Meteorological Department
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is an agency of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Government of India. It is the principal agency responsible for meteorological observations, weather forecasting and seismology. IMD is headquarter ...
had objected to the name ''Hanuman'' being used as a name because of potential religious sentiments.
Thailand also requested that the spelling of several names be corrected and indicated a desire to change the names ''Prapiroon'', ''Durian'' and ''Khanun''.
The representatives of the United States of America also requested that the name ''Kodo'' be changed as it would have an undesirable meaning if mispronounced.
The session subsequently accepted the spelling changes as well as the requests from Thailand and the United States and established that both countries would submit a list of four names in priority order to its Secretariat within a week of the session ending.
The Typhoon Committee Secretariat would then circulate the list to all members for comment, with the highest priority name acceptable to all members used.
The secretariat subsequently reported to the following years session that the names ''Morakot'' and ''Aere'' had replaced ''Hanuman'' and ''Kodo''.
Names
See also
*
List of retired Atlantic hurricane names
This is a cumulative list of previously used tropical cyclone (tropical storm and hurricane) names which have been permanently removed from reuse in the North Atlantic region. As of April 2022, 94 storm names have been retired.
The naming of N ...
*
List of retired Pacific hurricane names
*
List of retired Philippine typhoon names
Since 1963, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has assigned local names to a tropical cyclone should it move into or form as a tropical depression in their area of responsibility located bet ...
*
List of retired Australian cyclone names
*
List of retired South Pacific tropical cyclone names
Tropical cyclones are non-frontal, low-pressure systems that develop, within an environment of warm sea surface temperatures and little vertical wind shear aloft. Within the South Pacific, names are assigned from a pre-determined list, to such s ...
Notes
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Retired Pacific Typhoon Names (Jma)
Names Pacific typhoon retired