Live · Live, updated every few hours by the warning centres
Storms
Active tropical cyclones with where they have been (solid line), where they are forecast to go (dashed line), the cone of possible tracks, and the area of damaging winds.
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How a tropical cyclone forms
It needs warm sea, at least about 26.5 °C, to supply heat and moisture; moist air that keeps rising; winds that change little with height, so the storm is not torn apart; and enough distance from the equator, at least about 5°, for the Earth's spin to start it rotating. Warm water is its fuel, so it weakens quickly over land or cold sea.
Typhoon, hurricane or cyclone
They are the same kind of storm with different names. In the North Atlantic and eastern Pacific it is a hurricane; in the north-western Pacific, near Taiwan and Japan, a typhoon; in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific, a cyclone.
Reading the cone
The cone shows where the centre of the storm will probably go, not how big the storm is. It widens with time because forecasts become less certain further ahead. Strong winds and heavy rain can reach far outside the cone.
What the toggles show
- Past typhoons
- Replays recorded typhoons from the IBTrACS archive, such as Gaemi (2024) and Morakot (2009), with an illustrative forecast cone. Useful when no storm is active.
Did you know?
NOAA estimates that a mature hurricane releases heat energy at a rate equivalent to about 200 times the electricity-generating capacity of the whole world, mostly from water vapour turning back into liquid inside its clouds.