June in November: A Typhoon in the Caroline Islands

Alkire, William H. (1978). "June in November: A Typhoon in the Caroline Islands". Glimpses of Micronesia. Guam. 18 (2): 22–27.

• Has attachment: File:MGVNPTHS.pdf

Abstract: This richly descriptive illustrated article documents the impact of Super Typhoon June on the outer islands of Yap District in November 1975 and combines meteorological analysis, ethnographic observation, and eyewitness reporting from Faraulep Atoll. Alkire situates the Caroline Islands within one of the major tropical storm corridors of the western Pacific and discusses both local and scientific understandings of typhoon behavior. The article opens with a broad overview of Western Pacific storm patterns, explaining that typhoons in Micronesia may occur during nearly any month of the year and often follow unpredictable paths. Alkire contrasts modern meteorological forecasting with older Carolinian “ethnometeorological” systems of storm prediction and emphasizes the vulnerability of low coral atolls, where populations live only a few meters above sea level in lightly constructed thatch-and-beam houses. The narrative then traces the development of Tropical Storm June into the most intense typhoon recorded to that date, noting Joint Typhoon Warning Center observations that the storm’s central pressure fell to 876 mb while sustained winds reached approximately 160 knots. Although the eye of the storm ultimately passed west of Woleai, Ifaluk, and Faraulep, the size and intensity of the system generated catastrophic flooding, surf, wind damage, and crop destruction across much of the central Carolines.