The record-breaking 2024 typhoon season in the Philippines — with six consecutive storms making landfall in less than a month — was “super-intensified” by climate change, according to analysis by World Weather Attribution (WWA).
From late October to mid-November 2024, the Philippines was hit by a series of consecutive typhoons, starting with Typhoon Trami on October 22 and ending with Typhoon Man-yi on November 16. These storms displaced more than 200,000 people across six regions, many of whom lost their homes multiple times in just one month.
The Philippines is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to extreme weather. The string of typhoons in such a short period of time has been described by experts as “unprecedented,” even for a country that regularly faces natural disasters.
According to WWA, climate change has exacerbated conditions for strong typhoons to form in the Philippine Sea and the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), including high sea temperatures and high humidity. Research shows that the likelihood of typhoons with winds exceeding 180 km/h has increased by 25% compared to pre-industrial times.
The six major storms during this period included three super typhoons with winds exceeding 208 km/h. This highlights the challenges of responding to back-to-back extreme weather events and raises concerns that this trend is likely to continue in future storm seasons.
On October 22, 2024, Typhoon Trami made landfall on the island of Luzon, bringing heavy rain equivalent to an average month’s worth of rainfall, leading to severe flooding. Just days later, Super Typhoon Kong-rey continued its devastation, affecting more than 9 million people and forcing the evacuation of nearly 300,000.
The series of storms that followed included Typhoon Yinxing, Toraji, Usagi, and finally Super Typhoon Man-yi on November 16. Japan recorded this as the first time in history that four typhoons formed in the Pacific Ocean in November.
Climate change not only increases the likelihood of typhoons, but also impacts their intensity, rainfall, and wave height. One study found that the likelihood of a typhoon reaching its maximum intensity in the Philippine Sea this year is 1.7 times higher than it would have been without climate change.
Scientists used observational data and climate models to compare current reality with a hypothetical world without human-caused global warming. The results showed that maximum hurricane winds increased by 7 km/h due to climate change.
According to the United Nations, by the end of November 2024, more than 250,000 homes in the Philippines had been damaged, hundreds of people had been killed or injured, and economic losses were estimated at $47 million. The Philippine government had spent more than $17 million in aid and appealed for assistance from neighboring countries, the United States, and the United Nations.
The average rate of typhoons forming from the Philippines and then entering the South China Sea ranges from 60-70%, depending on the specific weather conditions of each year.
Typhoons typically form in the eastern Philippines, then move across areas such as Luzon, Visayas or Mindanao and into the South China Sea.
After entering the East Sea, the storms may continue to make landfall in other countries in the region such as Vietnam, China, or turn north towards Japan and South Korea.
