FEMA disaster type · OpenFEMA declarations
Typhoon disasters in the United States
FEMA disaster declarations classified as "Typhoon" from 1963 to 2026 - which states are hit most often and how the count has changed over time.
- 60
- FEMA declarations
- 7
- States affected
- 1963
- Earliest year
- 2026
- Latest year
The verdict
According to FEMA's disaster declaration history, typhoon ranks #9 of the 27 distinct disaster types the agency has declared, accounting for 1.1% of all 5,218 declarations on record. It is declared more often than 69% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, based on total historical volume.
- #9 of 27
- FEMA disaster types, by declaration volume
- 1.1%
- share of all 5,218 FEMA declarations
- 60
- typhoon declarations, 1963–2026
Ranking reflects the count of Presidentially declared federal disasters per OpenFEMA, not event severity or economic loss; a rare declaration type can still be individually catastrophic.
How does Typhoon compare?
Typhoon vs. every FEMA declaration type
Declaration volume across all tracked incident types
60 Top 33% higher than 67% of 27 disaster types
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more disaster types. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-03
What shapes the typhoon record?
States with the most typhoon declarations
Wider bars = more FEMA declarations of this type
- Northern Mariana Islands
Northern Mariana Islands
20 declarations
- Federated States of Micronesia
Federated States of Micronesia
16 declarations
- Guam
Guam
15 declarations
- American Samoa 4
American Samoa
4 declarations
- Marshall Islands 3
Marshall Islands
3 declarations
- Hawaii 1
Hawaii
1 declarations
- Palau 1
Palau
1 declarations
What this shows Northern Mariana Islands leads with 20 typhoon declarations among the states shown.
Typhoon declarations by year
Federal declaration cadence for this incident type across the OpenFEMA record.
Peak year in this series: 1988 (5 declarations). A declaration is a federal assistance trigger, not a raw event count.
How common are Typhoon disasters in the U.S.?
FEMA has issued 60 federal disaster declarations classified as typhoon between 1963 and 2026, affecting 7 states and territories. Each declaration represents a formal federal recognition that an event exceeded state and local response capacity, unlocking Public Assistance, Individual Assistance, or Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding depending on the declaration class (DR, EM, or FM). Raw declaration counts therefore measure the federal response footprint, which is a lagging and thresholded indicator: smaller events handled entirely at the state level never appear, and declaration thresholds have been recalibrated over the dataset's multi-decade history.
Annual declaration counts move in fits and starts rather than a smooth trend. The peak year on record was 1988, with 5 typhoon declarations issued that single year, a clustering driven by major multi-state events and the federal government's declaration cadence. The most recent year on record is 2026, with 2 declarations. Trends over the 63+ year history reflect a mix of policy recalibration and genuine year-to-year hazard variability.
Where these declarations land varies widely by state. The three states with the most typhoon declarations on record are MP (20 declarations), FM (16 declarations), GU (15 declarations), largely explained by regional exposure rather than population size alone. States with the fewest declarations, including MH (3), HI (1), PW (1), a sign that most local events here never crossed the federal declaration threshold.
Which federal declaration does typhoon actually get?
This is a conventional Major Disaster type: 92% of its 60 declarations are DRs, with 8% filed as Emergencies. A DR is the instrument that opens the widest set of programs -- Public Assistance for damaged infrastructure, Individual Assistance for households, and Hazard Mitigation funding intended to reduce the next event's cost. The concentration means these events are typically declared after damage has been assessed, not while they are still developing.
Declarations by State
| # | State | Declarations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northern Mariana Islands MP | 20 |
| 2 | Federated States of Micronesia FM | 16 |
| 3 | Guam GU | 15 |
| 4 | American Samoa AS | 4 |
| 5 | Marshall Islands MH | 3 |
| 6 | Hawaii HI | 1 |
| 7 | Palau PW | 1 |
Declarations by Year
| Year | Declarations |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 |
| 2020 | 2 |
| 2019 | 4 |
| 2018 | 2 |
| 2015 | 2 |
| 2006 | 1 |
| 2005 | 1 |
| 2004 | 5 |
| 2003 | 3 |
| 2002 | 4 |
| 1998 | 3 |
| 1997 | 1 |
| 1993 | 1 |
| 1992 | 5 |
| 1991 | 4 |
| 1990 | 1 |
| 1988 | 5 |
| 1987 | 2 |
| 1986 | 1 |
| 1983 | 1 |
| 1981 | 2 |
| 1976 | 2 |
| 1971 | 1 |
| 1966 | 1 |
| 1965 | 1 |
| 1963 | 3 |
Recent Typhoon Declarations
Download all 60 declarations as CSV . Source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0. The table below lists the 30 most recent; the file carries every one.
| DR# | Title | State | Type | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3648 | TYPHOON BAVI | GU | EM | 2026-07-03 |
| 4921 | SUPER TYPHOON SINLAKU | GU | DR | 2026-06-30 |
| 3425 | TYPHOON BUALOI | MP | EM | 2019-10-20 |
| 3424 | TYPHOON HAGIBIS | MP | EM | 2019-10-07 |
| 4433 | TYPHOON WUTIP | GU | DR | 2019-05-07 |
| 4404 | SUPER TYPHOON YUTU | MP | DR | 2018-10-26 |
| 3408 | TYPHOON YUTU | MP | EM | 2018-10-23 |
| 4398 | TYPHOON MANGKHUT | GU | DR | 2018-10-01 |
| 4396 | TYPHOON MANGKHUT | MP | DR | 2018-09-29 |
| 3402 | TYPHOON MANGKHUT | MP | EM | 2018-09-10 |
| 4235 | TYPHOON SOUDELOR | MP | DR | 2015-08-05 |
| 4224 | TYPHOON DOLPHIN | GU | DR | 2015-06-05 |
| 1611 | TYPHOON NABI | MP | DR | 2005-11-08 |
| 1582 | TC OLAF, INCLUD. HIGH WINDS AND SURF AND HEAVY RAINFALL | AS | DR | 2005-02-18 |
| 1541 | FLOODING, HIGH SURF, STORM SURGE, AND HIGH WINDS AS A RESULT OF SUPER TYPHOON CH | MP | DR | 2004-08-26 |
| 1532 | FLOODING, HIGH SURF, HIGH WINDS, AND WIND-DRIVEN RAIN ASSOCIATED W TYPH TINGTING | MP | DR | 2004-07-29 |
| 1511 | TYPHOON SUDAL | FM | DR | 2004-04-10 |
| 1506 | HIGH WINDS, HIGH SURF, AND HEAVY RAINFALL ASSOCIATED WITH TROPCIAL CYCLONE HETA | AS | DR | 2004-01-13 |
| 1504 | TYPHOON LUPIT | FM | DR | 2003-12-19 |
| 1449 | TYPHOON PONGSONA | FM | DR | 2003-01-06 |
| 1447 | SUPER TYPHOON PONGSONA | MP | DR | 2002-12-11 |
| 1446 | SUPER TYPHOON PONGSONA | GU | DR | 2002-12-08 |
| 1430 | TYPHOON CHATA'AN | MP | DR | 2002-08-06 |
| 1427 | TS CHATA'AN, INC FLOODING, MUDSLIDES AND LANDSLIDES | FM | DR | 2002-07-11 |
| 1426 | TYPHOON CHATA'AN | GU | DR | 2002-07-06 |
| 1417 | TYPHOON MITAG | FM | DR | 2002-05-29 |
| 1194 | SUPER TYPHOON PAKA | MP | DR | 1997-12-24 |
| 1193 | TYPHOON PAKA, TORRENTIAL RAINS, HIGH WINDS, HIGH SURF | GU | DR | 1997-12-17 |
| 1192 | SUPER TYPHOON KEITH | MP | DR | 1997-12-08 |
| 1166 | TYPHOON FERN | FM | DR | 1997-03-11 |
What this means for Typhoon declarations
Typhoon is declared more often than 69% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, with 60 FEMA declaration records; Northern Mariana Islands leads with 20.
- Northern Mariana Islands accounts for the largest share of typhoon declarations in this corpus. Northern Mariana Islands profile
- See how states compare on raw FEMA declaration volume across all incident types. Most disasters ranking
- Learn what a FEMA declaration does and does not measure relative to NOAA storm events. Disaster-data guide
A federal declaration is a legal assistance trigger, not a count of every storm event or a forecast. For current threats follow the National Weather Service and local officials; in an emergency call 911.
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Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 For informational purposes only
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Verify declarations with FEMA → Verify storm-event context with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.