The 1947 Pacific typhoon season has no official bounds; it ran year-round in 1947, but most tropical cyclones tend to form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean between June and December. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
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 1947 Pacific hurricane season. At the time, tropical storms that formed within this region of the western Pacific were identified and named by the United States Armed Services, and these names are taken from the list that USAS publicly adopted before the 1945 season started.[1][2]
Anna originated from a vigorous tropical wave that moved west along the ITCZ during the days of March 16 and 17. On March 18 an approaching cold front caused the wave to congeal into a tropical low pressure system while about 415 miles (668 km) to the east of Davao. The system rapidly organized into a tropical storm and continued west. Anna made landfall on Mindanao on March 20 as a tropical depression and weakened quickly thereafter.
Little data is available for this system, but the U.S. Air Weather Service noted that the storm was of little significance.
Carol formed east of the Philippines on June 17. It moved northwest and skimmed right past the most northern island as a 115 mph typhoon. After that, it began to weaken. Carol passed by Taiwan, and was about to hit mainland China, but it suddenly took a northeast track. Shortly thereafter, Carol dissipated on June 23.
The Joint Typhoon Warning center (JTWC) best tracks[4] lists this system as 03W.
Typhoon Kathleen struck the Boso Peninsula and the entire Kanto Region in Japan on September 15. Heavy rains caused the Arakawa and Tone Rivers to overflow. The resulting floods killed 1,077 people and left 853 people missing.[7]
Typhoon Mildred made landfall in Central Luzon as a minimal typhoon. It then crossed the South China Sea en route to Hainan Island, where the system lost its identity.
The origins of Rosalind can be traced to a tropical storm that intensified into a category 2 on October 6. Rosalind continued to rapidly intensify from 964 to 918 mbar, reaching its peak intensity. After Rosalind reached its peak intensity, slight wind shear caused Rosalind to weaken on a category 2 on October 10. It intensified into a category 3 before it moved slowly. It weakened to a category 1 and tropical storm. Rosalind dissipated on October 14.
Rosalind was the first super typhoon ever recorded in the Pacific Ocean.
Tropical Storm Irene formed on November 30 between the Philippine Islands. It strengthened to a tropical storm with 50 mph winds before it made landfall on one of the islands. It curved northeast and weakened to a tropical depression. But after exiting land, it restrengthened to a moderate tropical storm. But shortly thereafter, it became extratropical on December 3. The Japan Meteorological Agency analyzed it as a tropical depression, though it was actually a moderate tropical storm.
Typhoon Jean made a direct hit over Manila during the Christmas holidays after organizing in the Philippine Sea to the southeast of Yap Island, moving west-northwest and accelerating as it made landfall in the border area of Albay and Camarines Sur. The storm continued its fast movement and track towards southern part of Manila and Southern Tagalog.
After passing Manila, the storm emerged from the coast of Zambales towards the South China Sea, starting to shift more towards the northwest and eventually north and northeast, all the way moving parallel to the coast of Luzon. The typhoon weakened into a tropical storm and recurved west of the Batanes group of islands and passed through the Bashi Channel south of Taiwan and continued north-eastward towards Miyakojima and the southern Japanese islands and eventually dissipated on 29 December. No data is available on what happened to the system after turning post-tropical.
The curved parabolic track of Typhoon Jean had its similar semblance to that of Typhoon Flora the month before.
Because Typhoon Jean battered Manila during the Yuletide season, there were some eyewitness reports of Christmas decorations being strewn around the city. There were also reports of wind damage in the nearby suburb of Parañaque. It was the second recorded instance of a typhoon impacting the country during Christmas time, with the first being an unnamed (aka Quantico) typhoon in 1918, and the others being Typhoon Lee in 1981, Typhoon Axel in 1994 (which made landfall in Samar three days prior to Christmas Day of that year), Typhoon Nock-ten in 2016, and Typhoon Phanfone in 2019.
