Typhoon Tip was the 1979 typhoon that recorded the lowest directly measured central pressure ever observed in a tropical cyclone. Reconnaissance aircraft measured a pressure of 870 hPa on 12 October 1979.
Tip intensified in the western Pacific after developing near Pohnpei in Micronesia. Extremely favorable atmospheric conditions helped it strengthen rapidly, while its circulation expanded to an extraordinary diameter of about 2,220 kilometers, the largest tropical-cyclone wind field on record.
At peak intensity, Tip also produced estimated one-minute sustained winds of about 305 km/h, making it a Category 5-equivalent super typhoon. It later turned northeast and struck southern Japan on 19 October before becoming extratropical.
Tip’s pressure record is based on direct reconnaissance measurements and remains the standard official record. Satellite estimates have suggested that some later storms, including Typhoon Haiyan, might have had lower pressures, but those estimates lack comparable direct observations. That is why Tip remains the canonical answer to this question.