Every active tropical storm, hurricane, typhoon and cyclone on Earth. Tap Path & forecast on any storm to see where it has been and where forecasters expect it to go.
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Storm positions and forecasts come from the U.S. National Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center through Esri's public Active Hurricanes service. Always follow your own national weather service for warnings.
Recently active storms are listed first. Load the full list to see every named storm since January 1, with the path each one took.
Past tracks come from NOAA's IBTrACS archive. The most recent entries are provisional and can change as agencies review them.
A hurricane, a typhoon and a cyclone are the same kind of storm: a rotating system of thunderstorms that forms over warm tropical ocean water. The name depends only on where in the world it forms.
Used for storms with winds of 74 mph (119 km/h) or more that form over the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific east of the International Date Line. They threaten the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, the U.S. Gulf and East coasts and Hawaii.
The word comes from Huracán, a storm god of the Maya and Taíno peoples.
The same storms in the western North Pacific, which is the most active tropical cyclone region on Earth. They hit the Philippines, Taiwan, China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, and can occur in any month, with a peak from August to October.
A typhoon with sustained winds of 150 mph (240 km/h) or more is often called a super typhoon.
In the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, southwest Indian Ocean, around Australia and across the South Pacific, the same storms are called tropical cyclones. They affect India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Oman, Madagascar, Mozambique, Australia and Pacific islands such as Fiji and Vanuatu.
Scientists also use "tropical cyclone" as the general term covering all three.
Shaded regions are approximate. Tropical cyclones form over oceans warmer than about 80°F (26.5°C), roughly 5° to 30° north and south of the equator. They almost never form right at the equator or over cold water.
| Basin | Local name | Season | Typical storms per year* | Main warning center |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Atlantic Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico | Hurricane | June 1 – Nov 30 (peak around Sept 10) | About 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes, 3 major | National Hurricane Center, Miami |
| Northeast Pacific West of Mexico and Central America | Hurricane | May 15 – Nov 30 | About 15 named storms, 8 hurricanes, 4 major | National Hurricane Center |
| Central Pacific Around Hawaii | Hurricane | June 1 – Nov 30 | A few per year; Hawaii is rarely hit directly | Central Pacific Hurricane Center, Honolulu |
| Northwest Pacific Philippine Sea, South China Sea | Typhoon | All year; peak Aug – Oct | About 25 named storms, 16 typhoons: the busiest basin | Japan Meteorological Agency; Joint Typhoon Warning Center; PAGASA (Philippines); China, Hong Kong and others |
| North Indian Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea | Cyclone | Two peaks: Apr – Jun and Oct – Dec | About 4 to 6 named storms | India Meteorological Department |
| Southwest Indian Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius | Cyclone | Nov – Apr | About 9 to 10 named storms | Météo-France, La Réunion |
| Australian region North and west Australia, Indonesia | Cyclone | Nov – Apr | About 10 named storms | Australian Bureau of Meteorology |
| South Pacific Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa, N.Z. | Cyclone | Nov – Apr | About 9 to 10 named storms | Fiji Meteorological Service; NZ MetService |
*Long-term averages; individual years vary a lot. Every basin is counted slightly differently, so totals are approximate.
The South Atlantic and the southeast Pacific off Chile and Peru almost never produce tropical cyclones. The ocean is too cold and upper-level winds tear storms apart. The one famous exception is Hurricane Catarina, which struck southern Brazil in March 2004.
Earth's rotation (the Coriolis effect) turns storms counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere (hurricanes and typhoons) and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere (southern cyclones). Near the equator this effect is too weak, which is why storms don't form within about 5 degrees of it.
Each region's weather agency developed its own vocabulary. Wind speeds are also averaged over different times (1 minute in the U.S., 10 minutes elsewhere), so a storm's "category" can differ between agencies even when it is exactly the same storm.
Atlantic and Eastern Pacific storms take names from alphabetical lists set by the World Meteorological Organization. Highlighted names have already been used this year. A name flagged now belongs to a storm that is active at this moment.
Names of especially deadly or costly storms are retired and replaced. Western Pacific and Indian Ocean storms use continuous name lists proposed by member countries (for example Champi, a flower name from Micronesia, or Vance in the Pacific list).
A storm weakens when it crosses cooler water, moves over land (cutting off its warm, moist fuel and adding friction), or meets strong wind shear or dry air. Even weakened storms can still drop enormous rain and cause flooding far inland.
Warmer oceans and a warmer atmosphere are expected to make storms rain harder (about 7% more moisture per 1°C of warming), help them strengthen faster, and let a rising sea push surge farther inland. Scientists do not expect more storms overall, but a larger share of the strongest ones (Categories 4 and 5).
The scale rates wind only. It does not measure surge or rain, which often cause the most damage.
The shaded cone shows where the center of the storm is likely to travel. Historically the center stays inside the cone about two-thirds of the time. The cone is not the size of the storm: dangerous winds, surge and rain extend well outside it.
Path forecasts are usually accurate to within roughly 100 miles at 3 days. Intensity forecasts are harder, especially when a storm intensifies rapidly.
Tropical cyclones are among the deadliest natural hazards on Earth. The table below ranks them by the death toll that is most often published. The oldest figures come from historical accounts, many storms never had names, and the true numbers are very uncertain.
| # | Storm | Year | Where | Deaths (estimate) | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bhola cyclone | 1970 | Bangladesh (East Pakistan), India | at least 300,000 | A storm surge swept the low Ganges delta islands. Usually called the deadliest tropical cyclone on record; some estimates run higher. |
| 2 | Calcutta (Hooghly) cyclone | 1737 | India, Bangladesh | about 300,000 | A very old, uncertain figure from historical accounts. |
| 3 | Shanghai storm | 1931 | China | about 300,000 | A very old and very uncertain figure. |
| 4 | Unnamed storm | 1582 | Bangladesh | about 200,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 5 | Backerganj cyclone | 1876 | Bangladesh | about 200,000 | A storm surge in the Meghna estuary. |
| 6 | Unnamed storm | 1897 | Bangladesh | about 175,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 7 | Cyclone Nargis | 2008 | Myanmar | 138,373 | A storm surge up the densely populated Irrawaddy Delta; the worst natural disaster in Myanmar's history. |
| 8 | Bangladesh cyclone | 1991 | Bangladesh | about 138,000 | A surge came ashore near Chittagong. It led to a big expansion of cyclone shelters and warnings. |
| 9 | Unnamed storm | 1911 | Bangladesh | about 120,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 10 | Unnamed storm | 1780 | China | about 100,000 | A July 1780 typhoon; the figure comes from historical sources. |
| 11 | Unnamed storm | 1862 | China | about 80,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 12 | Unnamed storm | 1847 | Bangladesh | about 75,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 13 | Unnamed storm | 1917 | Bangladesh | about 70,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 14 | Harriet | 1962 | Bangladesh, Thailand | about 50,935 | Struck Thailand's Gulf coast and Bangladesh. |
| 15 | Shantou (Swatow) typhoon | 1922 | China | 50,000 to 100,000 or more | A typhoon with a storm surge struck the Shantou area of Guangdong. |
| 16 | Unnamed storm | 1699 | Bangladesh | about 50,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 17 | Unnamed storm | 1767 | Bangladesh | about 50,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 18 | Unnamed storm | 1822 | Bangladesh | about 50,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 19 | Unnamed storm | 1833 | India | about 50,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 20 | Unnamed storm | Oct 1854 | India | about 50,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 21 | Unnamed storm | 5 Oct 1864 | India | about 50,000 | The Calcutta area; historical estimate. |
| 22 | Unnamed typhoon | 1912 | China | about 50,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 23 | Unnamed storm | Sep 1919 | Bangladesh | about 40,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 24 | Unnamed storm | 2 Nov 1864 | India | about 40,000 | Historical estimate, very uncertain. |
| 25 | Typhoon Nina | 1975 | China | about 26,000 | Extreme rain made the Banqiao and other dams in Henan fail. Most deaths came from the flooding and its aftermath. |
Source: the Wikipedia list of deadliest tropical cyclones (World Meteorological Organization and historical sources behind it); ranked by the lowest figure printed for each storm. Bay of Bengal storms dominate the list, and almost all of the top 25 were in Asia.
| # | Hurricane | Year | Deaths (estimate) | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Great Hurricane | 1780 | 22,000 to 27,500 | Struck Barbados, Martinique, Saint Lucia and other Caribbean islands. The deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record. |
| 2 | Hurricane Mitch | 1998 | about 11,400 or more | Days of rain caused catastrophic floods and landslides in Honduras and Nicaragua. |
| 3 | Hurricane Fifi | 1974 | 8,200 to 10,000 | Flooding and landslides in Honduras. |
| 4 | Galveston hurricane | 1900 | 8,000 to 12,000 | A storm surge overwhelmed Galveston Island, Texas. The deadliest natural disaster in US history. |
| 5 | Hurricane Flora | 1963 | about 7,200 | Days of heavy rain over Haiti and Cuba. |
| 6 | Pointe-à-Pitre hurricane | 1776 | more than 6,000 | Struck Guadeloupe. |
| 7 | Okeechobee hurricane | 1928 | more than 4,100 | Wind pushed the water of Lake Okeechobee over a low dike in Florida. |
| 8 | Newfoundland hurricane | 1775 | about 4,000 | A late-season storm that struck fishing fleets off Newfoundland. |
| 9 | Monterrey hurricane | 1909 | about 4,000 | Flooding in Monterrey, Mexico. |
| 10 | San Ciriaco hurricane | 1899 | about 3,900 | A long-lived storm that devastated Puerto Rico. |
For comparison, Hurricane Katrina (2005), the costliest US hurricane, killed about 1,400 to 1,800 people. Source: the Wikipedia list of deadliest Atlantic hurricanes.
The biggest killer is storm surge, the dome of ocean water the storm pushes ashore. The US National Hurricane Center has found that storm surge caused about half of US hurricane deaths in recent decades, and rain flooding caused most of the rest. Landslides and dam failures add to the toll.
The northern Bay of Bengal is shallow and funnel-shaped, which piles up the surge. Behind it lie the low, crowded Ganges, Brahmaputra and Irrawaddy deltas where millions of people live just above sea level, with few places to go to higher ground.
After the 1970 Bhola disaster Bangladesh built thousands of cyclone shelters and trained volunteers to carry warnings door to door. Storms of similar strength in recent years, such as Sidr (2007) and Amphan (2020), have killed far fewer people than those of the past. Evacuating before the surge arrives is the single most important step.
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