Typhoon Mawar, known in the Philippines as
Super Typhoon Betty, was the strongest Northern Hemisphere tropical cyclone on record in the month of May, and the strongest tropical cyclone worldwide in 2023 so far. The second named storm and the first typhoon of the 2023 Pacific typhoon season, Mawar originated from an area of low-pressure south-southwest of Chuuk Lagoon that developed into a tropical depression on May 19. It fluctuated in intensity and became a tropical storm, after which it intensified into a Category 4-equivalent super typhoon on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. It then underwent an eyewall replacement cycle, then reintensified to attain 1-minute sustained winds of 295 km/h (185 mph) according to the JTWC, becoming a Category 5-equivalent super typhoon. Mawar weakened slightly as it moved around the southwestern edge of the subtropical high that made it steer north of the Philippines and then east of Taiwan. Mawar traversed the Okinawa Islands as a tropical storm, then transitioned into an extratropical cyclone as it moved northeastward out to sea, where it later dissipated east of Kamchatka Peninsula.