Baguio

A term used exclusively in the Philippines to describe the many typhoons that strike the archipelago annually. Pronounced bag-YOU, the word is taken from the name of the Filipino town of Baguio, located some 80 miles (129 km) due north of Manila, where the United States built a major railway junction during its occupation of the country in the early 1900s. Although its exact derivation has since been lost, it is possible that the name’s connection with the destructive effects of typhoons stems from an astounding instance in July of 1911, when no less than 88 inches (2,235 mm) of rain fell on the town of Baguio in four days. While in this particular case such an enormous precipitation count was not caused by the flooding strike of a tropical cyclone, its tremendous rainfall did simulate those generally experienced in Filipino typhoons. It is also possible that adoption of the word baguio—or the name of the town constructed at the behest of the United States—as the name of a destructive being such as a typhoon indicates a cultural linkage between the two “leveling” entities of violent weather and the distantbut seemingly omnipotent nation that during the past century had frequently embraced the Philippines in its sphere of influence.