A climatological study of typhoons over the Philippine Area of Responsibility from 1989–2018

Abstract

The Philippines is in the Western North Pacific region, where it is a recipient of several weather disturbances such as tropical cyclones. This study aims to determine trends and periodicities of typhoons (TY) within the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR), and the rainfall they brought in a 30-year period (1989–2018) for future forecast and disaster risk mitigation efforts of these TY. These TYs are raised when TC’s sustained winds are 118 kph and above. Frequency analysis of TY is done to determine the trends and periodicities in terms of the yearly total occurrence, number of TY that made landfall, distribution of TY classification, and their seasonal variation. The results showed that with PAR the yearly total occurrence of TY seems to have an approximately 12-year periodicity where maximum occurrence was observed around the years 1994, 2004, and 2014 while minimum occurrence was observed in years 1989, 1999, and 2010. Also, track data shows that only 32 % of these TY made a landfall within PAR. Out of the three regions in the Philippines, Luzon Island is the region where most of the severe typhoons made landfall at 80 %. Moreover, TYs occurred mostly during September to November where the transition period between the northeast monsoon and south west monsoon usually occurs. Also, rainfall during which these TYs have occurred were obtained from five synoptic stations across the Philippines. It showed from 1989 to 1998, the total yearly rainfall brought by these TYs ranged from 804 mm to 1 912 mm. But from 1999 to 2018, these TYs brought more rain where their total yearly rainfall ranged from 2 844 mm to 4 941 mm.