A retrospective, not a live warning. Dashed track is a forecast from the original outlook.
About this story
Ride along as a typhoon brushes an invisible fence.
Cempaka is the record 32nd named storm of 2026. For seven hours it belonged to the Philippines, under a second name: Samuel.
Not a video - a real map driven by a timeline you can scrub. Storm positions come from PAGASA and JMA bulletins; anything still ahead is marked as forecast.
The swirl and wind ring are artist's impressions; positions are from bulletins.
Why so many storms? A super El Niño warmed the stage, and the subtropical high-pressure ridge sat about two degrees of latitude too far north all autumn - a corridor for storms to form and follow.
The rain over Luzon this week is the amihan, the northeast monsoon - not Samuel. The storm never threatened land.
samuel - a map story, November 11, 2026. Sound off. Nothing saved. Everything ahead of the bulletins is marked forecast.
What this is
The short life of Typhoon Cempaka - Samuel in the Philippines - told on the map it happened over. Formed northwest of the Marianas on November 7, 2026, it clipped the corner of the Philippine Area of Responsibility for seven hours on November 9, peaked over open water, and is forecast to fade into the Pacific without ever threatening land.
Good to know
- Positions at bulletin times are official readings; the motion between them is interpolated.
- The swirling marker and its wind ring are artist's impressions. Wind-reach figures (300-350 km) are from PAGASA bulletins.
- Everything past the morning of November 11 (PHT) is the PAGASA forecast of November 9, drawn dashed.
- Closest pass to land: about 1,370 km east-northeast of extreme Northern Luzon. No tropical cyclone wind signals were raised.
The machinery of a record season
- 32 named storms by November 9 - the first time a 32nd storm has formed since 1994. The old century record was 31, in 2013. A typical year sees 24.3.
- China's National Climate Center ties the count partly to a super El Niño: the subtropical high sat about 2° of latitude north of normal from August to October, opening a formation corridor.
- 23 storms formed between July and October; nine between September 1 and November 9, six of them super typhoons. None made landfall in China.
- Cempaka was the Philippines' 19th cyclone inside the PAR this year - and the first of November.
Steps
Before you rely on it
This is a retrospective story, not a forecast and not a warning. For current tropical cyclone warnings in the Philippines, go to PAGASA. Internationally: JMA and JTWC. Forecast points here are PAGASA's November 9 outlook and will drift from what actually happened.