1996 Typhoon Season

[Ptarmigan]

I notice the 1996 Typhoon Season was very active. Any reasons for that, despite a La Nina?

[Aslkahuna]

The 1996 ATCR does make note of the ongoing La Niña pattern (or El Viejo as they called it) and notes that the general trend of where the storms formed followed what is to be expected for a cold phase event. However, as to the very active season for WPAC and the NIO, they made no guesses as to why. However, it should be noted that JTWC has never found any direct correlation between cold phase events and the number of storms that form in a given. It's the POST Niño years when we are going from warm phase into neutral and then beyond where we see that strong correlation between the ENSO phase and low activity.

Steve