The 1963 Pacific typhoon season has no official bounds; it ran year-round in 1963, 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 1963 Pacific hurricane season. Tropical Storms formed in the entire west pacific basin were assigned a name by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Tropical depressions in this basin have the "W" suffix added to their number. Tropical depressions that enter or form in the Philippine area of responsibility are assigned a name by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration or PAGASA. This can often result in the same storm having two names.
43 tropical depressions formed this year in the Western Pacific, of which 25 became tropical storms. 19 storms reached typhoon intensity, of which 8 reached super typhoon strength.1
On July 27 Tropical Depression 20W formed in the West Pacific. It drifted northward, reaching tropical storm on the 30th before turning to the southwest. Bess turned to the north on August 2, and reached typhoon status early on the 3rd. Bess rapidly intensified to a peak of 150 mph on the 4th, but weakened as it continued northward. On the 9th it struck Japan, and on the 11th Bess became extratropical. At the time, Bess had the longest longevity of a Western Pacific tropical cyclone. Typhoon Bess caused severe damage on the island of Kyūshū. 23 people were killed and 6 were missing.3
Typhoon Gloria, which developed on September 5 in the open waters of the West Pacific, rapidly intensified to a peak of 155 mph on the 9th. It weakened as it continued west-northwestward, and hit extreme northeastern Taiwan on the 11th as a 100 mph typhoon. It caused severe flooding in Northern Taiwan and hundreds of casualties. Gloria continued westward, and hit eastern China that night as an 85 mph typhoon. The storm looped over land to the northeast, and dissipated on the 14th to the east of China. Gloria caused 239 casualties, with 89 missing.
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