page_title: Tropical cyclones in 2004
section_title: April
hierarchical_section_title: Tropical cyclones in 2004 / Systems / April
caption_attribution_description: The MODIS instrument onboard the Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of Typhoon Sudal swirling in the Pacific waters east of the Philippines on April 11 at 4:25 UTC. At the time this image was taken, Sudal was packing sustained winds of 132 mph with gusts to 146 mph and moving towards the northwest at 7 mph.
context_page_description: During 2004, tropical cyclones formed within seven different tropical cyclone basins, located within various parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. During the year, a total of 130 systems formed with 81 of these developing further and were named by the responsible warning centre. The strongest tropical cyclone of the year was Cyclone Gafilo, which was estimated to have a minimum barometric pressure of 895 hPa.
  The most active basin in the year was the Western Pacific, which documented 29 named systems, while the North Atlantic, despite only amounting to 15 named systems, was its basin's hyperactive season since 1996. Conversely, both the Eastern Pacific hurricane and North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons experienced the fewest cyclones reaching tropical storm intensity in recorded history, numbering 12 and 4, respectively. Activity across the southern hemisphere's three basins—South-West Indian, Australian, and South Pacific—was spread evenly, with each region recording seven named storms apiece.
  The costliest tropical cyclone was Hurricane Ivan which struck Caribbean and United States in September causing a tornado outbreak, with US$26.1 billion in damage.
context_section_description: Below average forming 9 systems. Only Typhoon Sudal (2004) became a storm, mostly being a depression.
caption: Typhoon Sudal
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