Deadliest typhoons to hit the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - Florita, the first typhoon to hit the Philippine archipelago after a dry and dreary summer has given us a hard-hitting wakeup call- the dry season is over and the monsoon season is here.

On average, the archipelago of more than 7,100 islands is hit by an average of 20 typhoons or tropical storms each year, which kill hundreds and sometimes thousands of people. Because of this, the Philippines had been all too familiar with the destructive storms, ferocious winds and fast-moving super typhoons.

A typhoon is a type of large storm system having a circular or spiral system of violent winds, typically hundreds of kilometers or miles in diameter. The winds spiral around a region of low atmospheric pressure. "Typhoon" is the name of these storms that occur in the Western Pacific. 

Typhoons vary in strength, and in order to be classified as super typhoon, these tropical giants must have sustained winds of at least 150 miles per hour by American classification (120 mph by Hong Kong Observatory standards).

Here is a list of  some typhoons, which destroyed homes and tormented lives of thousands of Filipinos, according to the government records and those compiled by David Padua, a meteorologist for weather forecasting website Weather Philippines Foundation.

1. Tropical Storm Thelma (Uring) unleashed flash floods on the central city of Ormoc on Leyte island on Nov. 15, 1991, killing more than 5,100.
2. Typhoon Bopha (Pablo) smashed into the main southern island of Mindanao on Dec. 3, 2012. Rarely hit by major storms, the unprepared region suffers about 1,900 people dead or missing.
3. Typhoon Ike (Ruping)  hit the central Philippines on Aug. 31, 1984, killing 1,363 people.
4. Typhoon Washi (Sendong) hit the northern part of Mindanao island on Dec. 16, 2011, killing at least 1,080 people.
5. Floods and landslides unleashed by Typhoon Trix  killed 995 people in the Bicol region of the main island of Luzon on Oct. 16, 1952.
6. Typhoon Amy (Yoyong) raked across the central islands from Dec. 9, 1951, killing 991 people as it unleashed floods and landslides and caused a massive storm surge that destroyed large sections of Negros island's west coast.
7. Storm surges struck the eastern city of Legazpi on Nov. 25, 1987 as Typhoon Nina (Sisang) roared into the Bicol region, where it also unleashed deadly mudslides down Mayon volcano. The disaster caused 979 deaths.
8. Typhoon Fengshen (Frank)  tracked an erratic and destructive path across the central islands and nearby areas from June 20, 2008, killing 938 people.
9. Typhoon Angela (Rosing), one of the strongest storms to ever hit the Philippines with gusts of up to 260 kilometers an hour, caused carnage in Bicol and later Manila from Nov. 2, 1995, killing 936 people.
10. Typhoon Agnes (Undang) struck the central islands from Nov. 5, 1984, killing 895 people.

Rounding out the worst typhoon list is Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). It is officially the deadliest storm to sweep this archipelago-nation. Haiyan struck the Philippines on November 8 with winds over 190 mph, flattening areas like Tacloban City. There are approximately 5,235 deaths recorded, surpassing the record of Thelma.