Hurricane and Flooding in Guam, August 1 to 30, 1997

August saw an active Monsoon trough place itself across the region. This caused copious amounts of rain across the Marianas Islands. This resulted in numerous periods of heavy rainfall and localized Urban and Small Stream flooding. Rainfall at the National Weather Service Office was 38.49 inches, which is a new record for the month of August. A few surges in the monsson caused strong winds across the region. Guam saw 12 days with peak winds greater than 30 mph. Other places that saw peak winds of 30 mph or greater was Majuro with 9 days (peak wind 37 mph), Pohnpei saw 8 days (peak wind of 41 mph) and Chuuk with 11 days (peak wind of 48 mph). The biggest wind producer of the month was Super Typhoon Winnie (14W) . Super Typhoon Winnie formed as a tropical disturbance on the Monsson trough on August 5th in the Marshall Islands. This system became a tropical depression on August 8th about 240 miles north of Pohnpei. Winnie became a tropical storm on the 9th and a typhoon on the 10th. Winnie continued to rapidly intensify and became a Super Typhoon on the 12th. On the evening of the 12th Winnie passed between the Northern Marianas islands ofPagan and Alamagan. The Northern Marianas island of Anatahan had most of it's banana crop destroyed and the island of Agrihan had four houses blown down and tin roofs blown away on others.Winnie caused a major surge in the monsoon. This resulted in not only strong wind directly from the storm, but also far to the south of it. This caused power outages and crop damage across Guam, even when the storm center was 300 miles away. The peak wind at the National Weather Service Office on the 12th was 53 mph. The winds also caused a barge to break loose in Apra Harbor. The barge ran into an sank a 55 foot sail boat. On Saipan the high winds knocked out almost half of the islands power. The wind also blew the tin roofs off of seven houses and caused substansial damage to 3 others. 50 houses received minor damage. Winnie left the Guam Area of Responsibility on the 14th.Tropical Storm Yule (15W) formed as a tropical disturbance on the 9th. It became a tropical onthe 17th. It passed 40 miles east of Wake Island onthe 20th. Highest winds on Wake Island were 40 mph with gust to 55 mph. Yule left the Guam Area of Responsibility on the 21st. No damge was reportedTropical Storm Amber formed as a tropical disturbance on the 19th. It became a tropical storm on the 21st and a typhoon on the 22nd. The typhoon left the Guam Area of Responsibility on the 24th. The system stayed out over open ocean waters and no damge was reported.Tropical Storm BIng (19W) formed as a tropical on the monsson trough on August 26th about 250 miles northwest of Pohnpei. It became a tropical depression on the 27th and a tropical storm on the 29th when it was 130 miles east- southeast of Guam. The storm did cause some winds across the island of Guam, peakwind at the Tiyan Weather Service Office was 28 mph on the 29th and 38 mph on the 30th. The more significant effect of Bing was that it brought copious amounts of rain to Guam on the 29th with 5.91 inches falling at the Tiyan Office. Another 1.41 inches fell on the 30th as beand of rain from the intensifying storm moved across the island of Guam.An interesting weather note for the month wqs related to the strong west winds along the equator. During the month a small Indonesian fishing boat was found a few hundred miles south of Guam by a tuna fishing boat. They had been out in the water for a few weeks. They were from the island of Siau which is north of the city of Manado in Sulawesi. The crew consisted of two men and a twelve year old boy. The boat was meant for inter-island travel and near shore fishing, not high seas travel. The fishermen report being stuck in a thunderstorm. Their engine then failed. the strong and persistant west winds pushed them further and further away from shore until they lost sight of land. After spending some time in Guam, they were returned home.