Headline

Pacific Hurricane, Typhoon Records Keep Falling With Weeks to Go

 Philippines

It’s been a record year for powerful hurricanes and typhoons in the Pacific Ocean, and they just keep coming.

Map of the cumulative tracks of all tropical cyclones during the 1985–2005 time period. The Pacific Ocean west of the International Date Line sees more tropical cyclones than any other basin, while there is almost no activity in the Atlantic Ocean south of the Equator. Background image: NASA this version: Nilfanion

It’s been a record year for powerful hurricanes and typhoons in the Pacific Ocean, and they just keep coming. Typhoon Melor, which peaked at Category 4 strength on the U.S. Saffir-Simpson scale, weakened as it moved through the Philippines, but chances are it will have company before it finally fades away...The Pacific, in the midst of a strong El Nino, has warmer-than-normal water across large parts of the basin. This has allowed hurricanes and typhoons to spawn and grow from one end of the ocean to the other. While the Eastern Pacific’s hurricane season officially ended Nov. 30, storms can appear all year across the basin. The Accumulated Cyclone Energy index, which meteorologists use to plot the intensity of a tropical season, set a record in the Pacific this year.