Typhoon Hagibis

Typhoon Hagibis, known in Japan as Typhoon No.19 or the Reiwa 1 East Japan Typhoon (令和元年東日本台風, Reiwa Gannen Higashi-Nihon Taifū), was a large, extremely powerful and costly tropical cyclone that caused widespread destruction in Japan and is one of the costliest typhoons on record. The nineteenth named storm, ninth typhoon, and third super typhoon of the 2019 Pacific typhoon season, it was the strongest typhoon to strike mainland Japan in decades, and one of the largest typhoons ever recorded, with a peak gale-force diameter of 825 nautical miles (949 mi; 1,528 km). The typhoon raised global media attention, as it greatly affected the 2019 Rugby World Cup being hosted by Japan. With a death toll of 139, Hagibis was also the deadliest typhoon to strike Japan since Typhoon Fran in 1976.

Hagibis developed from a tropical disturbance first monitored a couple hundred miles north of the Marshall Islands on October 2, 2019. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) began issuing advisories on Tropical Depression 20W. Little change occurred as it travelled west toward the Mariana Islands over the next day, but on October 5, it began quickly organizing and early that day, the system was issued with the name Hagibis by the JMA, which means "speed" in Filipino. Environmental conditions became extremely favourable for further development, and Hagibis underwent a period of explosive intensification on October 6, and became a Category 5-equivalent super typhoon in under 12 hours, the second such system of the 2019 season, before passing through the Northern Mariana Islands at peak intensity, with 10-minute sustained winds of 105 kn (195 km/h; 120 mph) and a central pressure of 915 hPa (27.02 inHg). Shortly afterwards, it underwent an eyewall replacement cycle, weakening before reaching a second peak intensity on October 8. Traveling toward Japan, Hagibis encountered unfavorable conditions and steady weakening commenced. On October 12, Hagibis made landfall on Japan on the Izu Peninsula near Shizuoka and the Greater Tokyo Area. By the next day, Hagibis became an extratropical low and the JMA and JTWC issued their final advisories on the system, dissipating on October 14 as it was absorbed into a low to its northeast.

Hagibis caused catastrophic destruction across much of eastern Japan. Hagibis spawned a large tornado on October 12, which struck the Ichihara area of Chiba Prefecture during the onset of Hagibis; the tornado, along with a 5.7 magnitude earthquake off the coast, caused additional damage to those areas that were damaged by Hagibis. Hagibis caused more than $17 billion (2019 USD) in damages, making it, at the time, the costliest typhoon on record until it was beaten by Typhoon Doksuri of 2023 (when not adjusted for inflation).