During 2016, tropical cyclones formed within seven different tropical cyclone basins, located within various parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. During the year, 140 tropical cyclones formed in bodies of water known as tropical cyclone basins. Of these, 84, including two subtropical cyclones in the South Atlantic Ocean and two tropical-like cyclones in the Mediterranean, were named by various weather agencies when they attained maximum sustained winds of 35 knots. The strongest storm of the year was Winston, peaking with a pressure of 884 hPa (26.10 inHg) and with 10-minute sustained winds of 285 km/h (175 mph) before striking Fiji. The costliest and deadliest tropical cyclone in 2016 was Hurricane Matthew, which impacted Haiti, Cuba, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, causing US$15.09 billion in damage. Matthew killed 603 people; 546 in Haiti, 47 in United States, 4 in Cuba and Dominican Republic, and 1 in Colombia and St. Vincent.

Typhoon Megi, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Helen, was a large and powerful tropical cyclone which affected Taiwan and eastern China in late September 2016. It is the seventeenth named storm and the seventh typhoon of the annual typhoon season. Megi started as a tropical disturbance in the northeast of Pohnpei. On September 21, JMA upgraded the disturbance to a tropical depression. The depression was immediately named Megi by the JMA as it was classified as a tropical storm. It was later then designated by JTWC as a newly formed Tropical Depression 20W. Moving northwestwards, Megi was trying to form an eye which prompted the agencies to upgrade into a typhoon. Megi later entered PAR, attaining the name Helen as it continued to intensify. Favorable conditions and low vertical wind shear allow Megi to perform an eyewall replacement cycle as it approaches Taiwan.