2019 Pacific typhoon season
Tropical Depression 20W formed on October 5, 2019 in the outer Western Pacific, and later intensified into Tropical Storm Hagibis. Hagibis later became a typhoon, as it rapidly intensified towards the Mariana Islands and Guam. On 7 October, while continuing to move west, Hagibis explosively intensified and became a super typhoon in the space of only a few hours, developing a pinhole eye. As it approached the uninhabited areas of the Mariana Islands, strong convective activity as a result of extremely favourable conditions saw Hagibis became a very powerful Category 5-equivalent super typhoon with one-minute sustained wind speeds of 260 km/h (160 mph). The National Weather Service also began issuing advisories for its areas of responsibility, with a typhoon warning issued for Garapan and Tinian, and tropical storm advisories issued for Sinapalo and Hagåtña. Hagibis passed over the Mariana Islands at 15:30 UTC on 7 October at peak intensity, with 10-minute sustained winds of 195 km/h (120 mph) and a central pressure of 915 hPa (27.02 inHg). After passing the Mariana Islands Hagibis underwent an eyewall replacement cycle, thus weakening the typhoon. On October 12, Hagibis made landfall on Japan with sustained wind speeds of 150 km/h. Many competitions had to be cancelled due to the storm, including a Formula 1 qualifying match. Flooding in Japan was serious, and the storm costed 15 billion US dollars.