Tropical Storm Fern

In the middle of December, twin monsoon troughs were established in the extreme western Pacific Ocean, which will later spawn storms Greg, and Fern itself in the northern hemisphere. The trough in the southern hemisphere spawned cyclones Ophelia, Phil, and Fergus. Around that time, convection began to increase near the equator, and was associated with a westerly wind burst. A low level circulation center was noted by JTWC on December 19 at 0600 UTC. Two days later, convection consolidated near the circulation center, JTWC issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert at 1500 UTC, as sea level pressure began to deepen, and signs of upper level divergence were found in the system. The first advisory for Tropical Depression 42W followed three hours later, on December 17 at 1200 UTC. JMA proceeded to upgrade the depression into a tropical storm at 1800 UTC, with winds of , and a pressure reading of . ==Impact and aftermath==

At sea, a cargo ship en route from Guam to Yap was abandoned after it was damaged by high winds. The passengers entered a life raft, and were later found by a Navy search and rescue airplane. They were soon rescued by a Maltese tanker. No one was injured when the accident occurred. Yap was directly hit by Fern on Christmas Day, causing about $3 million (1996 USD) of damage. The Weather Service Office received a peak wind gust of , and a pressure reading of . The island received gusts around for several hours. One person was injured on the island, and no deaths were attributed to the storm. Roads and bridges were severely damaged, accounting for half of the damage. Two months later, on March 20, United States President Bill Clinton declared Yap State a disaster area, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to start the damage assessment of the area. The FEMA funding was only for public facilities, and did not include private properties. The request for individual assistance was not approved by FEMA, as damage to private properties were not much, and assistance from the national government and Yap State were sufficient. ==Notes==