Tropical cyclone activity in the Northwest Pacific has been elevated since April 2026, when Sinlaku reached super typhoon strength and struck Micronesia, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. Twenty-five named storms later, the basin remained active in late October.

On October 29, 2026, the EPIC camera on the DSCOVR satellite captured Super Typhoon In-fa near the Mariana Islands, while the remnants of Typhoon Champi approached Alaska. In-fa was the fifth typhoon to affect the Marianas that year. NASA described it as unusually intense, with a nearly circular shape and a large eye—features meteorologists use to identify rare annular storms, which make up about 4 percent of western North Pacific tropical cyclones and have eyes averaging about 45 kilometers across, compared with about 25 kilometers for standard storms. Champi peaked at nearly 300 kilometers per hour and brought damaging winds and heavy rain to Taiwan, Guam, parts of China and Japan. After transitioning to an extratropical storm, it entered the Bering Sea, where Alaska saw high winds and heavy rain and snow but avoided catastrophic damage. Meteorologist Rick Thoman noted it was the fourth ex-typhoon to reach Alaskan waters in 2026. NASA meteorologist Gary Partyka said the strong El Niño underway is a likely contributor to the active season.