Super Typhoon Ragasa Strongest of 2025

[Randy Zipser]

The following article has just been published by the BBC about Super Typhoon Ragasa, the strongest so far in the western Pacific basin this season. Gusts of 177mph were recorded yesterday. It is crossing the South China Sea and is expected to make landfall tomorrow south of Hong Kong and continue westward toward Vietnam. I was wondering whether the 5,000 mile long "blob of hot water" in the North Pacific Basin (reported recently in several media) might have been a contributing factor to the strength of this typhoon?

Typhoon Ragasa: Hong Kong and south China braces as super typhoon nears

 

[William Monfredo]

I usually do not read most weather stories from the mainstream media; I generally try to figure it out myself.
While I won't speak for a given typhoon, I will note some observations from several tropical-cyclone seasons.
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One of the situations WeatherBell Analytics use...the distorted pattern of SST warm-anomalies, my example above.
We've had situations in both basins where the temperature anomalies measure warmer to the north & less or none south.
Overall, this "backwards" setup has not proven conducive to surface convergence and rising air that aids in cyclone formation.
In fact, "warmer over cooler" likely plays a hindering role, causing conditions & seasons to rate far less than stellar with lower ACE.