Earth's Nine Category Five Storms of 2015: 2nd Most on Record

Category Five: the phase evokes an almost reverential awe in novice and seasoned hurricane watchers alike, as one considers the incredible power and majesty of these most perfect but terrifyingly destructive storms on the planet. As we look back on the year in weather, a striking feature of 2015 is the bumper crop of these fearsome storms that appeared--thanks to El Niño bringing record-warm ocean temperatures to large swaths of the Pacific Ocean. Nine Category 5 storms whipped into life over the world's oceans in 2015: five in the Northwest Pacific, one in the Northeast Pacific, one in the Southeast Pacific, and two in the South Indian Ocean. Since accurate global satellite records began in 1990, only one year has seen more. That record is held by the El Niño year of 1997, which had twelve Category 5 storms--ten of them in the Northwest Pacific. Two other season have seen nine Cat 5s--2004 and 2014. Earth averaged just 4.6 Category 5 storms per year between 1990 - 2014, according to ratings made by NOAA's National Hurricane Center and the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The majority of these storms occur during the July - November peak of the Northern Hemisphere's tropical cyclone season, with 59% of all Cat 5s occurring in the Northwest Pacific.


Figure 1. Global Category 5 tropical cyclones from 1990 - 2015, as rated by NOAA's National Hurricane Center and the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center. There is no obvious trend in the numbers, though the past two years have seen an unusually large number of Cat 5s.

Here, then, is a "rogue's gallery" of all the Category 5 storms on Earth in 2015:


Cat Five #9, Northeast Pacific. Hurricane Patricia as seen by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft at 1:30 pm EDT October 23, 2015. At the time, Patricia was the most intense hurricane ever observed in the Western Hemisphere, with 200 mph sustained surface winds and a central pressure of 879 mb. Patricia made landfall in an relatively unpopulated area near Cuixmala in Southwest Mexico on October 23 as a Category 5 storm with 165 mph winds, killing fourteen and doing $300 million in damage. Image credit: NASA.


Cat Five #8, Northwest Pacific. Super Typhoon Atsani as seen by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft at 05:30 UTC August 19, 2015. Six hours later, Atsani hit peak strength with 160 mph winds and a 925 mb central pressure. Atsani spent its life over the open ocean waters to the east and southeast of Japan, and did not affect any land areas. Image credit: NASA.


Cat Five #7, Northwest Pacific. Super Typhoon Soudelor as seen by the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi spacecraft at 03:43 UTC August 4, 2015. At the time, Soudelor was a peak-strength Category 5 storm with 180 mph winds and a 900 mb central pressure. Soudelor passed directly over Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands on August 2 as a Category 2 storm, causing widespread damage and injuring ten people on the island. Soudelor hit Japan's Ryukyu Islands on August 5, causing over $3 million in damage, then hit Taiwan as a Category 3 storm with 120 mph winds on August 7, knocking out power to 4.85 million households--the largest power outage in Taiwan's history. On August 8, Soudelor hit Fujian Province in China as a Category 1 storm with 85 mph winds, causing over $3 billion in damage. Soudelor killed a total of 41 people and did $3.2 billion in damage along its entire path. Image credit: NASA Suomi NPP Satellite Twitter feed.


Cat Five #6, Northwest Pacific. Super Typhoon Dolphin as seen at 01:05 UTC May 16, 2015 by the MODIS instrument. At the time, Dolphin was an intensifying Category 4 storm and would reach peak intensity as a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds 17 hours later. Dolphin affected Guam and Rota in the U.S. Mariana Islands as a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of 110 mph. The eye of Dolphin passed through the channel between the islands of Guam and Rota, and Andersen Air Force Base on Guam experienced sustained winds as high as 84 mph and a peak gust of 106 mph. Damage in the Mariana Islands from the typhoon was estimated at $10 million. Image credit: NASA.


Cat Five #5, Northwest Pacific. Super Typhoon Noul as seen by the new Japanese Himawari-8 satellite at 00:50 UTC May 10, 2015. At the time, Noul was a peak-strength Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds and a 915 mb central pressure. Noul hit northeast Luzon in the Philippines at 09 UTC May 10 as a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds, killing two and causing less than $1 million in damage. Noul was the fourth strongest typhoon on record for so early in the year. The only stronger ones were Super Typhoon Amy of 1971, which deepened to 890 mb on May 2, Super Typhoon Iris of 1951, which hit 909 mb on May 3, and Super Typhoon Maysak that occurred just over a month previously (March 31, 2015, 905 mb central pressure.) Image credit: The University of Wisconsin/CIMSS, which put together a remarkable hi-res satellite animation of the storm from the Himawari-8 satellite (which is still in check-out mode.)


Cat Five #4, Northwest Pacific. Super Typhoon Maysak as seen from the International Space Station at approximately 6 pm EDT Tuesday March 31, 2015 (just after dawn local time.) At the time, Mayask was at peak intensity, with sustained winds of 160 mph (as estimated by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center) and a central pressure of 905 mb (as estimated by the Japan Meteorological Agency.) Maysak was the strongest typhoon ever observed in the Northwest Pacific prior to April, and one of only three Category 5 typhoons ever observed in the Northwest Pacific so early in the year. Maysak killed 9 and did $8.5 million in damage to several small islands in the Federated States of Micronesia, which it struck at Category 5 strength on March 31. The nine people killed by the storm made it Micronesia's second deadliest storm in recorded history, according to EM-DAT. Their deadliest disaster was Category 4 Typhoon Chataan, which dumped 19.90" (506 mm) of rain in 24 hours on Chuuk, causing landslides that killed 47 people. Maysak is the 2nd most expensive disaster in Micronesia's history; the most expensive was Category 1 Typhoon Nina, which did $6 million (1987 dollars) in damage on November 21, 1987.


Cat Five #3, Southeast Pacific. Tropical Cyclone Pam near peak intensity (165 mph winds, 896 mb pressure), as seen by the VIIRS instrument on the Suomi satellite at 10:42 am EDT March 13, 2015, just southeast of Efate Island, where the capital of Vanuatu, Port Vila, lies. Pam killed 16 people and did $250 million in damage to the island nation of Vanuatu, making it the 2nd most expensive disaster in their history (the most expensive, according to EM-DAT: Cyclone Eric of 1985, which did $173 million in damage in 1985 dollars, or $377 million 2015 dollars.) Pam was the third most intense storm in the entire Southern Hemisphere by central pressure, only after Cyclone Zoe of 2002 and Cyclone Gafilo of 2004. Pam is tied with Cyclone Orson and Cyclone Monica for having the strongest sustained 10-minute average winds of any cyclone on record in the Southern Hemisphere. Image credit: @NOAASatellites.


Cat Five #2, Southwest Indian. Tropical Cyclone Eunice as seen by the MODIS instrument at 05:30 UTC January 30, 2015, when the storm was at peak intensity (160 mph winds, 900 mb pressure.) Eunice was the 3rd strongest cyclone ever observed in the Southwest Indian Ocean by pressure, and the strongest by winds. Fortunately, Eunice affected only ocean areas in the South Indian Ocean.


Cat Five #1, Southwest Indian. Tropical Cyclone Bansi as seen from the International Space Station, when lightning was lighting up the eye. The date of the photo was not given, but presumably was January 13, 2015, when Bansi was near peak intensity as a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Bansi grazed the French island of La Reunion, off the coast of Madagascar, on January 13, dumping up to 22 inches of rain. After weakening to a Category 2 storm, Bansi passed about 90 miles from Rodrigues Island, which recorded sustained winds of 93 mph. Approximately 90 percent of the island was left without power. Image credit: Astronaut Sam Cristoforetti.

The near misses
Three tropical cyclone achieved an intensity of 155 mph winds, just missing the cutoff for being classified as Category 5 storms. It is possible that in post-season analysis, these storms will be classified as Category 5 (this happened to two typhoons in the Pacific in post-season analysis after the 2014 typhoon season.) The near-miss storms of 2015 were Hurricane Joaquin in the Atlantic, Tropical Cyclone Chapala in the Arabian Sea, and Super Typhoon Nangka in the Northwest Pacific.

Happy New Year, everyone! I'll be back with a new post on the first Monday of 2016.

Jeff Masters