2013 Pacific typhoon season

Collectively, the storms caused 6,829 fatalities, while total damage amounted to at least $26.41 billion (USD), making it, at the time, the costliest Pacific typhoon season on record, until it was surpassed five years later.

Making landfall in the Philippines as a Category 5 super typhoon in early November, it wrought catastrophic damage and devastation across the country, particularly in the islands of Samar and Leyte, where extensive loss of life was recorded.

[1] These agencies include the Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) Consortium of the University College London, Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) and the Vietnamese National Center for Hydro Meteorological forecasts (VNCHMF).

[15][16] Late on January 2, the center passed over the Philippine island of Mindanao but maintained its deep convective banding, which prompted the JTWC to issue a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert (TCFA).

[46][48] Interaction with a tropical upper tropospheric trough (TUTT) cell to the east of Leepi sheared the convection to the southwest of the center, which consisted of several smaller circulations.

Bebinca's passage weakened the system to tropical depression strength, and, despite moving over the Gulf of Tonkin, failed to restrengthen before making a final landfall on June 23 east of Hanoi.

[61] Due to the potential effects of Bebinca, Sanya Phoenix International Airport cancelled or delayed 147 inbound and outbound flights, leaving 8,000 passengers stranded.

[68][70] Rumbia spent roughly a day moving across the archipelago before emerging into the South China Sea,[71][72] where it resumed strengthening to a peak of 95 km/h (60 mph) on July 1, a severe tropical storm.

[92] On July 26, a low-pressure area was observed 600 km (375 mi) east of General Santos and was embedded along the Intertropical Convergence Zone that brought heavy rains to Mindanao.

[105][106] On August 8, the JMA, JTWC, and PAGASA reported that a tropical depression had developed about 560 km (350 mi) to the north of Palau, with the latter naming it as Labuyo as it approached the Philippine Area of Responsibility.

[110] At 1200 UTC on August 11, Typhoon Utor attained peak intensity by the ten-minute maximum sustained winds reaching 195 km/h (121 mph) and the atmospheric pressure decreasing to 925 mbar (27.3 inHg).

[164] On September 15, the JMA reported that a tropical depression had developed within an area of low to moderate vertical windshear, about 1,000 km (620 mi) to the southeast of Hà Nội, Vietnam.

[165][166] Over the next two days the depression gradually developed further as it moved westwards, before the JTWC issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert late on September 17, as vertical windshear over the system decreased slightly.

[citation needed] As of September 29, 74 Chinese fishermen were missing after the storm sunk 3 fishing boats in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands as Thailand and Vietnam braced for torrential rain and flooding.

[216] On October 8, the JMA started to monitor a tropical depression, that developed within an area of low to moderate vertical windshear, about 1,350 km (840 mi) to the west of Manila on the Philippine island of Luzon.

[citation needed] Nari continued to intensify, and reached Category 3 status on October 11 as it moved west towards the Philippines and made landfall in Dingalan, Aurora.

[222] On October 8, 2013, the JMA started to monitor a tropical depression, that developed within an area of low to moderate vertical windshear, about 670 km (415 mi) to the east of Hagåtña on the island of Guam.

[231] During the morning of October 14, Wipha entered the Philippine area of responsibility, and PAGASA promptly named it Tino as it created an eyewall replacement cycle becoming a Category 4 typhoon later that day.

[245] Early on October 19, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reported that a tropical depression had developed, within an area of strong vertical windshear, about 730 km (455 mi) to the northeast of the Micronesian island of Pohnpei.

[247] As a result of this increase in convection and a consolidating low level circulation centre, the United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued a tropical cyclone formation alert on the system later that day.

[252] After JMA upgraded Lekima to a typhoon early on October 22, the system began to undergo rapid deepening, developing a well-defined eye with a symmetric eyewall and further improved deep convective banding owing to weak vertical wind shear and radial outflow.

[253][254] When Lekima was tracking along the southwestern periphery of a deep-layered subtropical ridge late on the same day, JTWC upgraded the system to a super typhoon with category 5 strength on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale, as an anticyclone was providing very favourable dual-channel outflow.

[255] Early on October 23, JMA reported that Typhoon Lekima had reached peak intensity, with 10-minute maximum sustained winds at 115 knots (215 km/h, 130 mph) and atmospheric pressure at 905 hPa (26.7 inHg).

[257] However, morphed integrated microwave imageries at CIMSS (MIMIC) depict that Lekima underwent an eyewall replacement cycle late on October 23 and completed it one day later.

[268][nb 2] After the storm, workers quickly restored power lines, while the government provided monetary assistance to storm-ravaged families,[270] after Cagayan was declared a state of calamity.

[citation needed] Within the Philippines, Haiyan was the worst tropical cyclone to impact the island nation, as it became both the deadliest and most damaging typhoon since reliable records started in 1970.

[277] According to The Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, a total of 6,300 people were reported to have died in Haiyan, with 5,902 or 93% of the deaths occurring in Eastern Visayas.

[citation needed] Early on November 15, the JTWC issued their final warning on Podul, as the remnants of the system's low level circulation center made landfall over Vietnam.

[296][297] On June 14, the CMA reported that a tropical depression had developed within a broad circulation that spanned most of the South China Sea, about 420 km (260 mi) to the southwest of Hong Kong.

[309] Early on August 28, the JMA started to monitor a tropical depression that had developed despite strong vertical wind shear about 925 km (575 mi) northwest of Anderson Air Force Base in Guam.

A tropical depression near the Philippines on March 20, 2013
A tropical depression in the South China Sea on August 28, 2013