1959 Pacific Typhoon Season

The 1959 Pacific typhoon season was regarded as one of the most devastating years for Pacific typhoons on record, with China, Japan and the Philippines sustaining catastrophic losses.

The scope of this article is limited to the Pacific Ocean, north of the equator and west of the International Date Line. Storms that form east of the Date Line and north of the equator are called hurricanes; see 1959 Pacific hurricane season. All typhoons were assigned a name and number. Tropical storms and tropical depressions formed in the entire west Pacific basin were assigned a name and number by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, but the latter was not added if no reconnaissance missions were assigned. Systems handled by the responsibility of the USWB and FWB featured no number.

The 1959 Pacific typhoon season featured 24 tropical cyclones, though operationally 59 total areas of investigation were classified by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC); three systems were handled by the responsibility of FWB at Pearl Harbor and the USWB at Honolulu. Three systems were questionable due to lack of reconnaissance aircraft use. In total, the season featured 65 tropical cyclones and areas of investigation operationally, including central Pacific Hurricane Patsy, which was operationally believed to have crossed the International Date Line into the western Pacific. The first annual tropical cyclone report for the western North Pacific Ocean was issued by the agency.