Typhoon frequency and intensity across the Western Pacific Ocean north of the Equator, 1951 – 2014

Disturbance has been a repeated theme in ecology in recent decades, yet incorporating its frequency and pattern at broad spatial scales into ecological analyses has been difficult – rather, most environmental datasets used in broad-extent analyses represent average conditions. We present a detailed dataset summarizing the frequency (i.e., number of typhoons) and intensity (average and maximum windspeeds) of typhoons across the Western Pacific north of the Equator, based on data characterizing tracks for 1673 typhoons from the Japan Meteorological Center. The data presented are aggregated and resampled to 0.2° (~22 km at the Equator) spatial resolution; temporal coverage extends 1951 – 2014. We also present data specifically for prior to 1980 and after 1999, to respond to questions related to climate change, although no major changes were evident between the time periods