Pacific Storm Season Hits Record Activity as Super Typhoon In‑fa and Ex‑Typhoon Champi Roam the Northwest
A relentless string of tropical cyclones has battered the Northwest Pacific, with Super Typhoon In‑fa swirling near the Mariana Islands and the remnants of Typhoon Champi marching toward Alaska.
Season‑long Surge in Northwest Pacific Cyclones
Since April 2026, when Sinlaku surged to super‑typhoon strength and battered Micronesia, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, the Northwest Pacific Basin has been humming with activity. Twenty‑five named storms have been recorded, and the season remained vigorous into late October.
Super Typhoon In‑fa Captured Over the Marianas
On October 29, 2026, the EPIC camera aboard the DSCOVR satellite snapped an image of Super Typhoon In‑fa churning near the Mariana Islands. The next day, NASA’s Terra satellite, using the MODIS sensor, captured In‑fa just west of the island chain. In‑fa displayed a nearly circular shape and a large eye, hallmarks of an annular storm.
Annular storms are rare, making up only about 4 percent of western North Pacific cyclones, according to one analysis. Their eyes average roughly 45 km (30 mi) in diameter—larger than the ~25 km typical of standard tropical cyclones—and they tend to retain strength longer in hostile environments.
Ex‑Typhoon Champi’s Journey to the Bering Sea
While In‑fa remained a tropical cyclone in the EPIC image, the remnants of Typhoon Champi had already undergone extratropical transition and were moving toward Alaska. Champi had once produced maximum sustained winds of nearly 300 km/h (185 mph), prompting some observers to label it one of the season’s strongest storms.
During its Pacific trek, Champi brushed Taiwan and Guam, delivering damaging winds and heavy rain to those islands as well as to parts of China and Japan. After losing tropical characteristics, its remnants entered the Bering Sea’s busy storm track.
Gary Partyka, a NASA Goddard meteorologist, explained that extratropical transition expands a storm’s wind field, covering a larger area even if wind speeds do not increase dramatically. He noted that a mid‑latitude storm would likely have persisted over the Bering Sea, but Champi’s remnants “intertwined with and helped intensify that system.”
Alaska’s Growing Exposure to Ex‑Typhoons
Champi became the fourth ex‑typhoon to enter Alaskan waters in 2026, following Bang‑Lang in August, Dujuan in September, and Choi‑wan in early October. University of Alaska Fairbanks climatologist Rick Thoman highlighted that the autumns of 1997 and 2015—both strong El Niño years—also saw three ex‑typhoons each. Since 1970, roughly 60 ex‑typhoons have impacted Alaska.
When Champi’s remnants reached Alaska, the state avoided the catastrophic damage experienced after ex‑typhoon Halong in October 2025, but some locations reported high winds, heavy rain, and snowfall, according to news reports and National Weather Service forecasts.
El Niño’s Role in the Hyper‑Active Season
Partyka described 2026 as a “particularly active year” for Pacific tropical cyclones, increasing the odds that Alaska would feel the effects of storms that have undergone extratropical transition. He identified the strong El Niño present in the Pacific as a “likely contributor” to the heightened activity.
El Niño, a climate pattern that emerges every two to seven years, features warmer‑than‑normal water in parts of the equatorial Pacific. In the Northwest Pacific, it tends to steer storms northward rather than westward toward East and Southeast Asia, directing more systems toward Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula.
Imaging the Storms
The striking images of In‑fa and Champi were produced using data from DSCOVR EPIC and NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview, processed by Michala Garrison for the Earth Observatory.
These observations underscore a season marked by powerful, atypical storms and a clear link to broader climate patterns, reminding us that the Pacific’s weather can ripple far beyond its own waters.
