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2018 Pacific typhoon season

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Through El Niño–Southern Oscillation, China and Korea

The scope of this article is limited to the Pacific Ocean, to the north of the equator between 100°E and the 180th meridian. Within the northwestern Pacific Ocean, there are two separate agencies that assign names to tropical cyclones, which can often result in a cyclone having two names, one from the JMA and one from PAGASA. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) will name a tropical cyclone should it be judged to have 10-minute sustained wind speeds of at least 65 km/h (40 mph) anywhere in the basin, while the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) assigns names to tropical cyclones which move into or form as a tropical depression in their area of responsibility located between 135°E and 115°E and between 5°N and 25°N regardless of whether or not a tropical cyclone has already been given a name by the JMA. Tropical depressions that are monitored by the United States' Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) are given a number with a "W" suffix.


Seasonal forecasts

During the year, several national meteorological services and scientific agencies forecast how many tropical cyclones, tropical storms, and typhoons will form during a season and/or how many tropical cyclones will affect a particular country. These agencies included the Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) Consortium of University College London, PAGASA and Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau. The first forecast of the year was released by PAGASA on January 15, within its seasonal climate outlook for the period January–June. The outlook noted that one to three tropical cyclones were expected between January and March, while two to four were expected to develop or enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility between April and June. PAGASA also mentioned that the La Niña would be short-lived, predicting that it would last until February or April.

On March 15, the Vietnamese National Center for Hydro Meteorological forecasts (VNCHMF) predicted that roughly twelve to thirteen tropical cyclones would affect Vietnam during 2018, which is above average. On March 23, the Hong Kong Observatory predicted that five to eight tropical cyclones would come within 500 kilometres of Hong Kong, which is normal to above normal, with the first tropical cyclone affecting Hong Kong in June or earlier. On May 11, the Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) issued their first forecast for the season, predicting that the 2018 season would be a slightly above average season with 27 named storms, 17 typhoons, and nine intense typhoons. The TSR released their second forecast on July 6, still predicting that the season will be above average, with the only changes to their forecast increasing the number of intense typhoons from 9 to 10. The PAGASA issued their second and final outlook on July 13 for the period of July – December, predicting six to eight tropical cyclones were expected to develop or enter their area of responsibility between July and September, while four to six were forecast during October to December. On August 7, TSR released their final forecast, with its only changes decreasing the numbers of intense typhoons from 10 to 9, as well as decreasing its ACE forecast from 331 units to 319 units.

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