
Infrared satellite image of 08/23/2015 showing three tropical cyclones active today from the central Pacific to the extreme northwest Pacific
The ‘twin evils’ of typhoon GONI and ATSANI continue moving over the northwest Pacific Ocean. Typhoon GONI brushed past the northern Philippines and Taiwan and it is now aiming for southern Japan and the Korean peninsula. Typhoon ATSANI has made a turn toward the north and now the northeast as it continues to track parallel to the east coast of Japan posing no direct threat to land.
![Projected track for typhoon ATSANI [courtesy of the U.S. Naval Research :aboratory] as of 08/23/2015](https://i0.wp.com/mitigat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/0823ATSANItrack.gif?resize=211%2C211)
Projected track for typhoon ATSANI [courtesy of the U.S. Naval Research laboratory] as of 08/23/2015
This cyclonic activity over the northwest Pacific is now joined by tropical storm LOKE to the west of Hawaii over the central Pacific ocean, which has seen plenty of disturbed weather activity in recent days, as a swarm of tropical waves and disturbed weather cells move westward after being generated over the eastern Pacific off the coast of Central America and Panama.

Color-enhanced infrared satellite image of 08/23/2015 showing several tropical waves and disturbed weather cells extending from the eastern Pacific off the coast of Central America and Panama to the central Pacific near Hawaii, where Tropical storm LOKE is now active and moving NNW toward the island of Midway.
While it would appear the west-northwest Pacific basin is having an extremely busy 2015 season in terms of tropical cyclone generation, the reality is that there have been a total of seventeen tropical cyclones affecting the region since MEKKHALA developed in January of this year and hit the Philippines until typhoon ATSANI formed this August. This kind of cyclonic activity is not unusual for that region and it is in fact somewhat below average. We need to wait and see what the next few weeks bring in terms of cyclogenesis to determine what kind of a season 2015 will be in the northwest Pacific ocean.
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