Top 5 Strongest Typhoons (All Stronger than Hurricane Wilma)

[RobWESTPACWX]

A video I put together discussing the strongest and most intense typhoons in recorded history. Most in the 60s and 70s.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW6hhhWB_OM[/youtube]

[Blown Away]

Cool video! Why do you think we have not seen systems reach top 5 in last 25 years? When a system reaches such extreme, what is the reality those extreme winds could ever reach land, seems friction on the approach would bring them down a little from the extreme?

[RobWESTPACWX]

In the western pacific storms often weaken when they swing north or run over the Philippines. (Two of the storms on the list hit Luzon)

One thing I noticed though is most of these storms were proven to be so low via Recon, something the western pacific no longer has. (Megi in 2010 had it, that storm is number six on the list) So its either two things, storms have not got that strong or no one has flew in to the center of the storms to record it.

[euro6208]

Cool video! Why do you think we have not seen systems reach top 5 in last 25 years? When a system reaches such extreme, what is the reality those extreme winds could ever reach land, seems friction on the approach would bring them down a little from the extreme?

The list of strongest typhoons in the wpac and the world is because of recon. If we had recon, we would see many powerful typhoons that would shock the world with records broken every year.

[RobWESTPACWX]

100% True Euro, I think recon would be a vast improvement in the western pacific, problem is no one wants to fund it, and with latest Satellite technology and the DVORAK scale being a reasonable way to estimate a typhoons intensity why would any government fund it.

[euro6208]

100% True Euro, I think recon would be a vast improvement in the western pacific, problem is no one wants to fund it, and with latest Satellite technology and the DVORAK scale being a reasonable way to estimate a typhoons intensity why would any government fund it.

a huge lost to meteorology...

[Meow]

Megi is currently the only official CI8.0 tropical cyclone.

[supercane4867]

For what I know there's about 6mb environmental pressure difference between ATL and WPAC
Wilma's pressure would be around 876mb if it were in the WPAC, only three other typhoons have lower pressure(Tip,Nora,June)

[supercane4867]

Megi is currently the only official CI8.0 tropical cyclone.

It doesn't mean anything, recon tells the story

[Meow]

It doesn't mean anything, recon tells the story

It just tells a half of the story, as Megi’s recon was ended before peak intensity.

[euro6208]

Have there been any typhoons stronger than Super Typhoon Tip?

Dethroned?

Great video and read discussing the candidates that might be stronger than tip...Every one or two years, we see a few of these...

That Top 5 video is severely outdated...too bad recon stopped...

[beoumont]

Wilma at its max. intensity, with the 2 mile eye:

[Alyono]

For what I know there's about 6mb environmental pressure difference between ATL and WPAC
Wilma's pressure would be around 876mb if it were in the WPAC, only three other typhoons have lower pressure(Tip,Nora,June)

To be honest, I dont think Wilma's pressure would have been any lower. it was in a monsoon trough just like many WPAC systems. At 989mb, it was only a 45 KT TS, similar to the WPAC pressure to wind ratio.

I think the P/W relationship is actually quite similar between the basins. The recon in 2008 and 2010 showed not much difference at all between the WPAC and the Atlantic. 55 KT SFMR was found with 994mb, Megi had SFMR winds ? 170 KT and flight level winds of 193 KT at 700mb and an 890mb pressure.

Those P/W relationships were based off of ESTIMATED surface winds, and some of the Atlantic BTs were total junk from the 1960s (Ethel for one!). Thus, I suspect the conclusions may be somewhat flawed

[beoumont]

Those P/W relationships were based off of ESTIMATED surface winds, and some of the Atlantic BTs were total junk from the 1960s (Ethel for one!). Thus, I suspect the conclusions may be somewhat flawed

What was the story with Ethel, anyway? All I recall was that I was a teenager in Miami and 3 days before Ethel formed, large cat. #4 Hurricane Donna had just came through Florida; and the rest of the East Coast. I recall hearing on transistor radio (the power was still out from Donna) that another dangerous hurricane had formed in the Gulf and winds were 150 mph. The Preliminary Report from the NHC states that recon. reported winds of 140 knots and a minimum pressure of only 972 mb: which is weird.

Was it later determined that either the pressure or wind instrumentation on that aircraft was faulty?

[SapphireSea]

If I had to guess, Ethel was probably measured at a higher flight level than today. (I believe) Depending on their altitude that 140kt FL could be as low as 100kt or high as 120kt surface. Depending on the pressure gradient, which may have been stronger on it's NE quad since it was heading N may also have created the pocket of cat 3-3 winds. I notice it says nothing about surface or estimated surface conditions, so this all may have been at flight level.

Like Angela, Gay, and Megi; I think their recon measurements occurred just before their peak satilite extrap intensities. I believe there was a paper stating that the first 2 and a few others may have exceeded Tip's pressure depth (I believe it was written before Megi). It is also possible Tip's pressure may have been faulty due to the time the obs were taken at. I would like to believe from observing that Megi was likely stronger than Tip as a concentrated cyclone, with Tip having far more energy associated due to it's size and strength.

Wilma like it was said was in a monsoon trough so ambient pressure was low to begin with.

[Meow]

I think the P/W relationship is actually quite similar between the basins. The recon in 2008 and 2010 showed not much difference at all between the WPAC and the Atlantic. 55 KT SFMR was found with 994mb, Megi had SFMR winds ? 170 KT and flight level winds of 193 KT at 700mb and an 890mb pressure.

ftp://ftp.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/pub/data/flightlevel/2010/megi/20101017U1.sum.txt

SLP 890 hPa, SWS 165 kt at 1305Z

[euro6208]

Wilma at its max. intensity, with the 2 mile eye:

Don't even compare wilma with our typhoons. Comparing recent history over there and past history over here is no fair. Plus there are countless of Wilma type typhoons over here but no recon.

[euro6208]

Like Angela, Gay, and Megi; I think their recon measurements occurred just before their peak satilite extrap intensities. I believe there was a paper stating that the first 2 and a few others may have exceeded Tip's pressure depth (I believe it was written before Megi).

Angela and Gay never got recon. They occurred after recon ended in august 1987.

https://ams.confex.com/ams/26HURR/techprogram/paper_75465.htm

http://www.typhoon2000.ph/karl/hoarau001.pdf

Good papers describing tip and many other strong typhoons that could have rival Tip. This was made before Megi and many other strong typhoon. Hair raising shocking video too.

[SapphireSea]

Like Angela, Gay, and Megi; I think their recon measurements occurred just before their peak satilite extrap intensities. I believe there was a paper stating that the first 2 and a few others may have exceeded Tip's pressure depth (I believe it was written before Megi).

Angela and Gay never got recon. They occurred after recon ended in august 1987.

https://ams.confex.com/ams/26HURR/techprogram/paper_75465.htm

http://www.typhoon2000.ph/karl/hoarau001.pdf

Good papers describing tip and many other strong typhoons that could have rival Tip. This was made before Megi and many other strong typhoon. Hair raising shocking video too.

I re-read the papers and I believe that your second link was one of the ones I originally read. Yes I did forget and misinterpret the paper by stating the recon. There was no recon, which is what prompted the research into modern day STY and arguing against Tip's measurements. I believe Tip's peak strength was also extrapolated via Dvroak and not through actual observations if I read correctly. I had also forgotten about STY Yuri, I did remember Angela and Gay though, they looked stunning from satellite, well deserving of their 8.0+ manual T numbers.

[CrazyC83]

The wind readings weren't too accurate in the 1960s; I believe the 140 kt was a visual estimate from sea conditions at 925mb level. Based on the P-W relationship, 972mb in the Gulf would be about 90 kt. As the storm appeared to be small, my estimate for the peak intensity of Ethel was 95 kt. At landfall, I estimate that Ethel was 75 kt. So it weakened, but not nearly as much as HURDAT currently shows. That would be one of the biggest changes in all of HURDAT - to go from Cat 5 to Cat 2.