Typhoon Tip

Typhoon Tip (Warling)

Typhoon (JMA scale)
Category 5 (Saffir–Simpson scale)
Typhoon Tip at global peak intensity on October 12, 1979
Formed	October 4, 1979
Dissipated	October 24, 1979
(Extratropical after October 19)
Highest winds	10-minute sustained: 260 km/h (160 mph) 1-minute sustained: 305 km/h (190 mph)
Lowest pressure	870 hPa (mbar); 25.69 inHg (Worldwide record low)
Fatalities	99 total
Areas affected	Caroline Islands, Philippines, Korean Peninsula, Japan, Northeast China, Russia, Alaska
Part of the 1979 Pacific typhoon season

Typhoon Tip, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Warling, was the largest and most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded. The nineteenth storm and twelfth typhoon of the 1979 Pacific typhoon season, Tip developed out of a disturbance from the monsoon trough on October 4 near Pohnpei. Initially, a tropical storm to the northwest hindered the development and motion of Tip, though after it tracked farther north Tip was able to intensify. After passing Guam, Tip rapidly intensified and reached peak winds of 305 km/h (190 mph) and a worldwide record-low sea-level pressure of 870 mbar (870.0 hPa; 25.69 inHg) on October 12. At its peak strength, it was also the largest tropical cyclone on record with a wind diameter of 2,220 km (1,380 mi). Tip slowly weakened as it continued west-northwestward and later turned to the northeast in response to an approaching trough. The typhoon made landfall in southern Japan on October 19, and became an extratropical cyclone shortly thereafter.

U.S. Air Force aircraft flew 60 weather reconnaissance missions into the typhoon, making Tip one of the most closely observed tropical cyclones. Rainfall from Tip indirectly led to a fire that killed 13 Marines and injured 68 at Combined Arms Training Center, Camp Fuji in the Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan. Elsewhere in the country, the typhoon caused widespread flooding and 42 deaths; offshore shipwrecks left 44 people killed or missing.

Three circulations developed within the monsoon trough that extended from the Philippines to the Marshall Islands in October 1979. A disturbance southwest of Guam developed into Tropical Storm Roger on October 3, and later on the same day the tropical disturbance which would later become Typhoon Tip formed south of Pohnpei. Strong flow from across the equator was drawn into Roger's wind circulation, initially preventing significant development of the precursor disturbance to Tip. Despite the unfavorable air pattern, the disturbance gradually organized as it moved westward. Due to the large-scale circulation pattern into Tropical Storm Roger, it moved erratically and slowly executed a cyclonic loop to the southeast of Chuuk. A reconnaissance aircraft flight into the system late on October 4 confirmed the existence of a closed low-level circulation, and early on October 5 the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued its first warning on Tropical Depression Twenty-Three.