Accumulated Cyclone Energy, worldwide, in real time

Year-to-date ACE for each basin and hemisphere, against the 1996–2025 average through today's date — not the full-season normal, so early-season basins aren't unfairly dinged. Bars show percent of normal-to-date; the tick marks 100%. Click a basin for its 60-year climatology — maps, the season clock, ENSO, records, and how 2026 ranks.

Cumulative ACE built up day by day through the calendar year (bold blue), against the 30-year climatological envelope: shaded bands are the 10–90% and 25–75% range of 1996–2025, the dashed line the average pace. Pick a basin.

ACE counts only the peak wind, once every six hours, so a sprawling 60-kt storm and a compact one score identically. Integrated kinetic energy counts the whole ≥34-kt wind field, and power dissipation weights it by the cube of the wind — the quantities that actually track surge and damage potential. Built from the same wind radii the size & energy pages model, live from NHC and JTWC.

Every numbered storm tracked so far this year, colored by intensity along its path. Named, currently-active systems are labelled. Hover a point for the fix; click a storm in the table below to highlight its track.

The thermodynamic speed limit: the strongest sustained wind the ocean and atmosphere could support at each point, computed here every day from ERA5 (tcpyPI, Gilford 2021). The live season runs against the 1979–2025 daily record (bands: 10–90% of years, line: median).

ERA5 reaches us about six days behind real time, so the newest day shown is never today.

Every numbered tropical cyclone of 2026, ranked by ACE. Peak intensity is the highest 1-minute sustained wind on the best track.

The multidecadal backdrop. Global tropical-cyclone energy and frequency have swung up and down with ENSO and other natural cycles for 50+ years, with no significant long-term trend — the running-sum charts I've maintained for two decades.