Five Category 5 Storms Before August: What 2026 Is Doing Differently
Super Typhoon Dolphin reached Category 5 this week. It was the fifth tropical cyclone on Earth to do so in 2026, and July is not over. Five is a lot for this point in the year. It is not a record, and it does not mean the planet has entered some new regime. But it is worth pausing on, because the reason it happened is not the one most people assume. A Saharan dust plume blowing west off Africa over the tropical Atlantic. Library image for illustration. It is not live satellite imagery of the storm discussed here — for current imagery use the agency links below. The count so far Genevieve got there first, in the eastern Pacific. It peaked at 160 mph sustained winds west of Mexico — the season's first Category 5 anywhere — and then spent its entire life over open water. Nobody on land noticed. Dolphin is the fifth, and the only one currently aimed at people. It formed in the western Pacific, ran up the scale fast, and is now expected to turn toward the Chinese coast i...