2020 pacific typhoon season

The 2020 Pacific typhoon season is an late-starting ongoing event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation, in which tropical cyclones form in the western Pacific Ocean. The season runs throughout the year, though most tropical cyclones typically develop between May and October. The season featured the basin's sixth-latest start on record, just slightly behind 2016, with the first system, Ambo, forming on May 10.

The scope of this article is limited to the Pacific Ocean to the north of the equator between 100°E and 180th meridian. Within the northwestern Pacific Ocean, there are two separate agencies that assign names to tropical cyclones which can often result in a cyclone having two names. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) will name a tropical cyclone should it be judged to have 10-minute sustained wind speeds of at least 65 km/h (40 mph) anywhere in the basin, whilst the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) assigns names to tropical cyclones which move into or form as a tropical depression in their area of responsibility located between 135°E and 115°E and between 5°N–25°N regardless of whether or not a tropical cyclone has already been given a name by the JMA. Tropical depressions that are monitored by the United States' Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) are given a number with a "W" suffix.

Seasonal forecasts
During the year several national meteorological services and scientific agencies forecast how many tropical cyclones, tropical storms, and typhoons will form during a season and/or how many tropical cyclones will affect a particular country. These agencies include the Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) Consortium of University College London, PAGASA and Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau. The first forecast for the year was released by PAGASA on January 22 predicting the first half of 2020, within its monthly seasonal climate outlook. The PAGASA predicts that only 0-4 tropical cyclones are expected to form or enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility between January and March, while five to eight tropical cyclones are expected to form between April and June. This was due to the fact that the El Niño–Southern Oscillation was seeing neutral conditions across the Pacific, and could persist until midyear.

Season summary
==Season summary== ImageSize  = width:1030 height:280 PlotArea   = top:10 bottom:80 right:20 left:20 Legend     = columns:2 left:30 top:58 columnwidth:270 AlignBars  = early DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period     = from:01/05/2020 till:01/01/2021 TimeAxis   = orientation:horizontal ScaleMinor = grid:black unit:month increment:1 start:01/05/2020 Colors     = id:canvas value:gray(0.88) id:GP     value:red id:TD     value:rgb(0.38,0.73,1)  legend:Tropical_Depression_=_≤62_km/h_(≤39_mph) id:TS     value:rgb(0,0.98,0.96)  legend:Tropical_Storm_=_63-88_km/h_(39-54_mph) id:ST     value:rgb(0.80,1,1)     legend:Severe_Tropical_Storm_=_89-117_km/h_(55-73_mph) id:TY     value:rgb(0.99,0.69,0.6)     legend:Typhoon_=_≥118_km/h_(≥74_mph)

The first few months of 2020 were extremely quiet, with no tropical systems developing between the months of January and April. On May 10, the season saw its first tropical system with the development of Tropical Depression Ambo making it the sixth-latest starting season on record, as well as the latest since 2016.