As Tropical Storm Ana makes landfall on the coast of the Carolinas as the first named tropical cyclone of the 2015 season in the Atlantic, in the western Pacific the 2015 typhoon season started back in January. Following three tropical cyclones and two full blown typhoons so far already in 2015 here's how things look over there at the moment:

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Whilst we wait to see what pronouncements emerge from the COP18 climate change talks in Doha over the next day or two, back in the Philippines the  National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council report in their 5:00 PM bulletin on December 7th that concerning what they call "lifelines":

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Typhoon Bopha is very unusual. According to Jeff Masters' Weather Underground blog yesterday, she is:

The 2nd most southerly typhoon ever recorded in the Western Pacific. Bopha became a tropical depression unusually close to the Equator, at 3.6°N latitude. Tropical cyclones rarely form so close to the Equator, because they cannot leverage the Earth's rotation to get themselves spinning.

An unfortunate side effect of the southerly track of Bopha is that:

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According to the latest advisory bulletin issued by the United States Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC for short), based at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, Tropical Storm Bopha has now developed hurricane force winds, and is therefore now classified as a typhoon:

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The September 7th overview of the North Atlantic from the National Hurricane Centre shows two red storms apart from Hurricane Katia:

North Atlantic tropical cyclone activity at 10:57 AM on Wednesday September 7th 2011

More on Maria Makes Her Appearance. Death Tolls Rise Elsewhere.

Here's the latest NHC overview of  North Atlantic tropical cyclone activity. As predicted Katia is now officially a category 1 hurricane, and is still forecast to become category 3 over the coming Labor Day weekend.

More on Hurricane Katia Heads West. Typhoon Nanmadol Kills 29 in the Far East.