With STY Kujira approaching the Philippines (and specifically Luzon), I checked back on climatology and came up with the following. For the period of 1967-1995 only ONE typhoon has hit Luzon as such in April-that was TY Violet in April 1967. Violet was an intense storm that peaked at 125kt before landfall but had begun to weaken as drier air entered the system prior to passage across northern Luzon. At Clark AB, we had little rain and no significant wind from the storm. There was a late March Typhoon (Susan) that tracked across the Visayas (going directly across Mactan and Cebu Islands in 1967. Susan was a very small storm with peak winds of 100kt shortly before eye passage over Mactan. After that during the period in question, only two April Typhoons have crossed the Philippines as such and both crossed the Visayas-Cecil in 1979 and Nelson in 1982-the latter peaking at 105kt just prior to passage. One would have to check the ATCRs out of JTWC for the years since 1995 for any other storms passing through the Philippines as typhoons in April but I do not recall any that have hit Luzon as such in April so if Kujira makes it it will be the first April hit by a typhoon on Luzon in 36 years. One storm (Vera in the early 70's) followed a track close to Kujira's but recurved prior to reaching Luzon). Thus we could be seeing a rare event indeed.
Steve
April Typhoons in the Philippines-Rare
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ColdFront77