Typhoon Cobra
Pacific typhoon in 1944
Typhoon Cobra, also known as the Typhoon of 1944 or Halsey's Typhoon (named after Admiral William Halsey Jr.), was the United States Navy designation for a powerful tropical cyclone that struck the United States Pacific Fleet in December 1944, during World War II. The storm sank three destroyers, killed 790 sailors, damaged nine other warships, and swept dozens of aircraft overboard off their aircraft carriers.
Task Force 38 (TF 38) had been operating about 300 mi (260 nmi; 480 km) east of Luzon in the Philippine Sea, conducting air raids against Japanese airfields in the Philippines and trying to refuel the ships. Information given to Halsey about the typhoon was incorrect, and despite warning signs of worsening conditions, the ships remained on station until December 17, when Halsey ordered the Third Fleet into the center of the typhoon.
With currently available data, it was the 23rd and last known Western Pacific tropical cyclone formed during the 1944 season.
Meteorological history
On December 17, 1944, the typhoon was first observed when United States Third Fleet was refueling. The U.S. Army Air Force forecast center on Saipan sent a reconnaissance flight and found the storm heading towards the fleet, with the estimated winds of 140 kn (160 mph; 72 m/s; 260 km/h). As it was headed towards the fleet, barometric pressures as low as 27.3 inHg (924 mbar) were reported by USS Dewey. The storm dissipated on December 19.
Damage to Task Force 38
TF 38 consisted of seven fleet carriers, six light carriers, eight battleships, 15 cruisers, and about 50 destroyers. The carriers had been conducting raids against Japanese airfields in the Philippines, and ships were being refueled, especially many destroyers, which were running low on fuel.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1185857. Authority coordinates are 16.306, 128.453. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1944.
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This entry incorporates text from “Typhoon Cobra” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.