Lably
Skip to content

Tropical cyclones in 2022

  • 62 min read
  • 4 chapters
This map shows the tracks of all tropical cyclones in the 2023 Worldwide cyclone season . The points show the location of each storm at 6-hour intervals. The colour represents the storm's maximum sust
OreoStar-fait · Public domain

Related on Lably

Through El Niño–Southern Oscillation

This year featured an average number of tropical cyclones globally. The most active basin of the year was the West Pacific, which had yet another below average season, with 25 named systems forming. The East Pacific was above average with 19 named storms forming, while the North Atlantic was average with 14 named storms, the fewest number since 2015. The North Indian basin produced 7 named storms, which constituted above average activity, however only one strengthened to cyclone strength. The Southern Hemisphere also featured average activity, with Cyclone Batsirai causing heavy damage and killing many people in Madagascar. Throughout the year, 18 major tropical cyclones formed, which included three Category 5 tropical cyclones, both figures being below the 1991–2020 global averages. The accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) index for 2022 (seven basins combined), as calculated by Colorado State University (CSU) was 559.6 units overall, which was the fewest number of units seen since 2010.

Tropical cyclones are primarily monitored by ten warning centers across the world, which are designated as a Regional Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC) or a Tropical Cyclone Warning Center (TCWC) by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). These ten centers are the National Hurricane Center (NHC) and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC), Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Météo-France (MFR), Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG), the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), Papua New Guinea's National Weather Service (PNGNWS), the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS), and New Zealand's MetService. Unofficial, but still notable, warning centres include the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA; albeit official within the Philippines), the United States's Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), and the Brazilian Navy Hydrographic Center.

Global atmospheric and hydrological conditions

The La Niña that started in the fourth quarter of 2021 is expected to continue into at least the first quarter of 2022, with an 87% chance of it persisting between the period of December 2021 to February 2022. On March 10, NOAA released an update on the ENSO conditions in the Pacific, in the update the La Niña is favored to continue into the Northern Hemisphere's summer with a 53% chance of it persisting during June – August 2022 period, and with a 40 to 50% chance of La Niña or ENSO-neutral during the Northern Hemisphere's autumn.

Sign in to keep reading

3 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Earth science