Cold weather might not affect typhoon formationBy Esme Yeh / Staff reporterResearch built on hundreds of years of storm activity records showed that typhoons were most frequent in the 17th century during the “little ice age,” challenging the common belief that low temperatures inhibit the formation of typhoons. Researchers pose at a news conference hosted by National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei yesterday. Such a thermal contrast between the land and the sea likely created a more dynamic summer monsoon circulation, which fostered favorable conditions such as increased low-level moisture transport for tropical cyclone formation, the research showed. The database helps promote intercultural, interdisciplinary climate research by enabling non-Mandarin-using international researchers to utilize Chinese historical documents, he said. The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America journal last month.

Source: Taipei Times January 15, 2026 17:12 UTC