Typhoon Viola (1969)

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Typhoon Viola, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Elang and in Mainland China as the Niutianyang Wind Disaster, was a destructive and deadly tropical cyclone that is estimated to have killed over 10,000 individuals in Guangdong, another 20 in the Philippine archipelago and 11 in Taiwan during mid to late July 1969. The sixth recorded system, fourth typhoon, and the first super typhoon of the 1969 Pacific typhoon season, the system was first noted on July 20 as an area of convection to the south of Guam. It slowly organized, becoming a tropical depression two days later before strengthening to a tropical storm on that day. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center gave the name Viola to the intensifying system. It then brushed some islands, reefs, and shoals of the Caroline Islands as it moved to the northwest. A trough to its south turned the system to the north-northwest before intensifying to a severe tropical storm as it entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility, assigning the name Elang by the Philippine Weather Bureau (which reorganized more than three years later to become PAGASA). Shortly after, it further strengthened to a typhoon following an eye forming over the center, before rapidly intensifying to a Category 4 super typhoon as it battered the Northern Philippines, particularly the Batanes on July 26. It then reached its peak intensity early the next day, with maximum sustained winds of 240 km/h (150 mph) and a minimum barometric pressure of 896 hPa, equivalent to a super typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Interaction with Taiwan and South China, unfavorable environment, and lack of outflow weakened Viola below super typhoon status until it made landfall near Hong Kong as a minimal typhoon on July 28. It rapidly weakened to a tropical storm and remained in that intensity until...