Global Identification of Previously Undetected Pre-Satellite-Era Tropical Cyclone Candidates in NOAA/CIRES Twentieth-Century Reanalysis Data

This study investigates the relative contributions of large-scale thermodynamic and dynamic processes to decadal and multidecadal changes in Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) activity, spanning the historical record since the late nineteenth century, and extending to 2100 projections. We employ a framework that decomposes TC counts into precursor disturbances that transition into fully developed storms, applied to multiensemble simulations of two TC-permitting atmospheric models. Using these models, we conduct controlled experiments with distinct SST forcings that isolate the influence of SST spatial patterns from that of global-mean warming on Atlantic TC activity. Our results show that decadal and multidecadal changes in TC frequency are primarily governed by two thermodynamic variables: potential intensity and moist entropy deficit. In the historical record, these variables reinforced one another, producing more robust trends in TC activity. In contrast, future projections suggest opposing influences, with one variable (potential intensity) becoming more favorable for TCs while the other (moist entropy deficit) becomes less favorable, leading to increased uncertainty in TC projections. We trace this shift to differences in relative warming between the tropical Atlantic and the broader tropics, underscoring that regional SST patterns, rather than the global-mean warming rate, control both past variability and projected future changes in TC activity. Constraining future projected patterns of warming is therefore essential for improving the reliability of TC projections.

In this study, we investigated the interdecadal change in tropical cyclone (TC) activity over the western North Pacific (WNP) in the early 2010s. At the western boundary of the WNP, the interdecadal change in TC activity exhibited a meridional tripole pattern. In contrast to the reduced activity over the northern South China Sea (SCS) and Taiwan, TC activity increased over the southern SCS and to the north of Shanghai after the early 2010s. Herein, we focused on the northern WNP. Over the last decade, frequent TC occurrences have affected East China, Korea and Japan. In this work, we examined the influence of synoptic‐scale waves (SSWs) on the interdecadal change in TC activity. During the 2011–2021 period, SSWs tended to propagate northward, resulting in more TC tracks affecting the northern WNP and surrounding countries. In contrast, the westward‐propagating SSWs before the early 2010s were more likely to favor westward‐moving TCs.

We examined the decreasing trend in rainfall during the late summer monsoon season (September) in Thailand from 1951 to 2000 and associated changes in tropical cyclone (TC) activity. Thailand receives significant rainfall from May to October and experiences two rainy peaks in late May to early June and in September. A previous study reported a decreasing trend in September rainfall in Thailand and, based on a regional climate model, suggested that the trend was associated with local deforestation. However, the long-term trend may also be affected by changes in large-scale circulation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate changes in large-scale circulation associated with the decreasing rainfall trend.Westward-propagating TCs from the South China Sea and the western North Pacific brought most of the rainfall over Thailand in September. TCs include tropical depressions, tropical storms, severe tropical storms, typhoons, and residual lows. 70% of the rainfall amount in September was estimated to be associated with TCs.The 50-year time-series of September rainfall over Thailand showed a significant decreasing trend. TC activity defined by 700-hPa relative vorticity, showed a weakening trend over the Indochina Peninsula. TC tracks also suggested the weakening of TC activity over this area. The long-term trend in rainfall during the late summer monsoon season was closely associated with changes in TC activity over the Indochina Peninsula; these changes were likely caused by changes in the major course of TCs. Concurrent with the changes in TC tracks, there was a change in the TC steering current around the Philippines archipelago and Taiwan. This led to the TC activity over the Indochina Peninsula being inactive, probably resulting in the long-term decrease in rainfall over Thailand.

The relationship between African dust and the climatology of tropical cyclones (TCs) in the North Atlantic is explored using the Community Atmosphere Model at a global horizontal resolution of 28 km. A simulation in which the aerosol model is modified to significantly reduce the amount of airborne dust is compared to a standard simulation. The simulation with reduced dust increases TC frequency globally, with the largest increase occurring in the North Atlantic. The increase in TC activity in the North Atlantic is consistent with an environment that is more conducive for the genesis and intensification of storms. TCs are more frequent (27%) and on average significantly longer lived (13%) in the low dust configuration but only slightly stronger (3%). This results in a 57% increase in accumulated cyclone energy per hurricane season on average. This work has implications for projections of future climate and resulting changes in TC activity.

This study investigates the decadal change in tropical cyclone (TC) activity over the South China Sea (SCS) in the boreal summer (June–August) since the early 1990s and explores possible causes behind it. Results show that the SCS TC activity experienced an abrupt decadal decrease at around 2003/03. Compared to the TC activities from the early 1990s to 2002, the number of TCs formed in the SCS markedly decreased from 2003 through the early 2010s. Moreover, most of the TCs were primarily confined within the SCS basin during this period. The TCs that formed during the period of 2003–11 usually moved west-northwestward and rapidly weakened after making landfall. It is found that a significant decadal-scale sea surface temperature (SST) warming occurred in the northern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean after 2002 while convection intensified over the tropical regions between 60° and 80°E and around 150°E, respectively. The warm SST anomalies induced an anomalous subsiding flow over the SCS basin via the Walker-like (zonal) circulation. Meanwhile, anomalously dry, sinking air around 5°–20°N derived from local Hadley (meridional) circulation reinforced the subsiding flow of the zonal circulation. The above circulation patterns suppressed TC genesis over the northern SCS, leading to the decadal decrease in TC activity that occurred around 2002/03. In addition, in conjunction with the local anomalous easterly flow, the intraseasonal atmospheric variability over the SCS has decreased since the early 2000s. This is unfavorable for the development of synoptic-scale disturbances and may also contribute to the decadal decrease in TC activity.

Global tropical cyclone (TC) activity is influenced by the tropical Pacific mean state, which is modulated by the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon at interannual time scales. In recent decades, observations show a La Niña–like trend in the tropical Pacific, while most global climate models simulate a more El Niño–like trend. The cause of this inconsistency remains under debate, but it is likely quite consequential for global TC activity. This study examines the response of global TC activity to sea surface temperature (SST) warming patterns using historical simulations from the High Resolution Model Intercomparison Project (HighResMIP): atmosphere-only simulations forced by observed SSTs, which exhibit a La Niña–like SST trend in the tropical Pacific; and coupled simulations, showing a weaker La Niña–like SST trend. TC activity is compared between the two sets of simulations using multiple statistics of TC activity, along with TC-relevant large-scale environmental fields. The TC genesis index (TCGI) is used to quantify the contributions of each environmental field to changes in TC activity. Results show that the forced global TC response is sensitive to the tropical Pacific mean state and varies by basin. In SST-forced simulations, TC activity’s trend patterns resemble the TC anomalies during La Niña events. In those simulations, thermodynamic environmental fields, namely, potential intensity and column-relative humidity, induce zonal variations in TC frequency, while dynamical fields, namely, vertical wind shear and absolute vorticity, induce meridional variations in TC frequency. In contrast, coupled simulations show no consistent TC response across HighResMIP models. Significance Statement Global tropical cyclone (TC) activity is influenced by the sea surface temperature pattern in the tropical Pacific. In recent decades, observations show strengthening zonal (west minus east) and meridional (off-equator minus equator) sea surface temperature gradients, whereas most climate models simulate the opposite trends. This study examines how global TC activity responds to the sea surface warming patterns using climate model simulations. Results show that TC activity is sensitive to changes in the tropical Pacific mean state, with basin-dependent responses. In models forced with strengthening gradients, TC activity changes resemble those during La Niña events, featuring anomalously positive zonal and meridional gradients in sea surface temperature. However, no consistent signals for TC activity have been found in models with weakening gradients.

Future changes in tropical cyclone (TC) activity over the western North Pacific (WNP) are analyzed using four regional climate models (RCMs) within the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) for East Asia. All RCMs are forced by the HadGEM2-AO under the historical and representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenarios, and are performed at about 50-km resolution over the CORDEX-East Asia domain. In the historical simulations (1980–2005), multi-RCM ensembles yield realistic climatology for TC tracks and genesis frequency during the TC season (June–November), although they show somewhat systematic biases in simulating TC activity. The future (2024–49) projections indicate an insignificant increase in the total number of TC genesis (+5%), but a significant increase in track density over East Asia coastal regions (+17%). The enhanced TC activity over the East Asia coastal regions is mainly related to vertical wind shear weakened by reduced meridional temperature gradient and increased sea surface temperature (SST) at midlatitudes. The future accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) of total TCs increases significantly (+19%) because individual TCs have a longer lifetime (+6.6%) and stronger maximum wind speed (+4.1%) compared to those in the historical run. In particular, the ACE of TCs passing through 25°N increases by 45.9% in the future climate, indicating that the destructiveness of TCs can be significantly enhanced in the midlatitudes despite the total number of TCs not changing greatly.

A pronounced decadal change in tropical cyclone (TC) activity over the western North Pacific (WNP) in the late 1990s was identified. Based on a comparison of the two epochs that occurred before and after the late 1990s, the TC genesis number exhibited an evident decrease over the southern WNP (S-WNP: 5°–20°N, 105°–170°E) and an increase over the northern WNP (N-WNP: 20°–25°N, 115°–155°E), which partly corresponded to a significant northward migration in the seasonal mean latitudinal location of TC genesis, i.e., from 17.2°N to 18.7°N. After the late 1990s, the northwestward-moving track became the most dominant track mode, accompanied by the weakening of both the westward-moving track and the northeastward-recurving track. Meanwhile, the TC occurrence frequency (TCF) experienced evident increases over southeastern China and the Okinawa islands, while prominent decreases occurred over the South China Sea, the Philippine Sea, Japan and east of Japan. Changes in the TCF were determined by TC genesis changes, TC track shifts and variations in regional TC durations, which were all ascribed to the decadal change in tropical Indo-Pacific sea surface temperature. The full picture on the decadal changes in the WNP TC activity revealed in this study may provide useful guidance for regional TC seasonal forecasts and future projections.

Projected future changes in global tropical cyclone (TC) activity are assessed using 5,000 year scale ensemble simulations for both current and 4 K surface warming climates with a 60 km global atmospheric model. The global number of TCs decreases by 33% in the future projection. Although geographical TC occurrences decrease generally, they increase in the central and eastern parts of the extra tropical North Pacific. Meanwhile, very intense (category 4 and 5) TC occurrences increase over a broader area including the south of Japan and south of Madagascar. The global number of category 4 and 5 TCs significantly decreases, contrary to the increase seen in several previous studies. Lifetime maximum surface wind speeds and precipitation rate are amplified globally. Regional TC activity changes have large uncertainty corresponding to sea surface temperature warming patterns. TC‐resolving large‐ensemble simulations provide useful information, especially for policy making related to future climate change.

Abstract. Long-term changes in rainfall and associated tropical cyclone (TC) activity in transition seasons between the wet and dry seasons in South and Southeast Asia, namely boreal spring and fall, were examined, using gridded rainfall, TC tracks, and reanalysis datasets, the focus of discussion being the long-term changes in coastal regions. It was found that long-term changes in rainfall during the transition seasons in South and Southeast Asia were closely associated with those in TC activity over the north Indian Ocean and South China Sea. Rainfall in May increased in the last 40 years over and around Myanmar, which indicates an earlier monsoon onset over the western Indochina Peninsula. Rainfall over and around northern Vietnam also increased in the last 40 years during October, which is known as the monsoon retreat period. These increases were associated with the long-term changes in TC activity. Furthermore, although linear trends have been previously suggested, monotonically increasing or decreasing trends in these long-term changes were not found over the last 60 years.

In this study, a new interpretation is proposed for the abrupt decrease in tropical cyclone (TC) activity in the western North Pacific (WNP) after the late 1990s. We hypothesize that this abrupt change constitutes a part of the phenomenon of interdecadal change in TC activity in the Pacific Basin, including the WNP, western South Pacific (WSP), and eastern North Pacific. Our analysis revealed that the climate-regime shift (CRS) in the Pacific during the middle to late 1990s resulted in a La Nina-like mean state, which was responsible for the interdecadal change in TC activity in the late 1990s. Analyses of the TC genesis potential index and numerical experiments revealed that the decline in TC activity in both the WNP and WSP was primarily attributable to the increase of vertical wind shear in the central Pacific due to the La Nina-like associated cold sea surface temperature (SST). Conversely, the La Nina-like associated warm SST in the western Pacific produced anomalous vertical transport of water vapor, increasing moisture levels in the mid-troposphere and TC activity in the western WNP. Furthermore, the CRS modified the mean TC genesis position and shifted the steering flow to the west, resulting in the increased frequency of TC landfalls in Taiwan, southeastern China, and northern Australia after the late 1990s.

A high-resolution regional atmospheric model is employed to project the late twenty-first-century changes of tropical cyclone (TC) activity over the western North Pacific (WP) and southwest Pacific (SP). The model realistically reproduces the basic features of the TC climatology in the present-day simulation. Future projections under the representative concentration pathway 4.5 (RCP45) and 8.5 (RCP85) scenarios are investigated. The results show no significant change of TC genesis frequency (TCGF) in the WP by RCP45 due to the cancellation of the reduction over the western part and the increase over the eastern part together with a considerable decrease of TCGF by RCP85 due to the excessive TCGF reduction in the western part. The TCGF over the SP consistently decreases from RCP45 to RCP85. Despite the fact that the simulated maximum surface wind speeds are below 52 m s−1, the change with more strong TCs and fewer weak TCs is robust. The future changes in the TC genesis locations and translational speeds modulate the TC lifetime and frequency of occurrence. The TC genesis potential index (GPI) is used to evaluate the projected TCGF changes. The results show that low-level vorticity and midtropospheric vertical velocity largely contribute to the reduction of GPI in the western part of the WP, while vertical wind shear and midtropospheric vertical velocity mainly contribute to the decrease of GPI over the SP. The weakening of the monsoon trough is found to be responsible for the decreases of GPI and TCGF over the western part of the WP.

The authors describe the characteristics of tropical cyclone (TC) activity in the GISS general circulation ModelE2 with a horizontal resolution 1°×1°. Four model simulations are analysed. In the first, the model is forced with sea surface temperature (SST) from the recent historical climatology. The other three have different idealised climate change simulations, namely (1) a uniform increase of SST by 2 degrees, (2) doubling of the CO2 concentration and (3) a combination of the two. These simulations were performed as part of the US Climate Variability and Predictability Program Hurricane Working Group. Diagnostics of standard measures of TC activity are computed from the recent historical climatological SST simulation and compared with the same measures computed from observations. The changes in TC activity in the three idealised climate change simulations, by comparison with that in the historical climatological SST simulation, are also described. Similar to previous results in the literature, the changes in TC frequency in the simulation with a doubling CO2 and an increase in SST are approximately the linear sum of the TC frequency in the other two simulations. However, in contrast with previous results, in these simulations the effects of CO2 and SST on TC frequency oppose each other. Large-scale environmental variables associated with TC activity are then analysed for the present and future simulations. Model biases in the large-scale fields are identified through a comparison with ERA-Interim reanalysis. Changes in the environmental fields in the future climate simulations are shown and their association with changes in TC activity discussed.

New versions of the high-resolution 20- and 60-km-mesh Meteorological Research Institute (MRI) atmospheric general circulation models (MRI-AGCM version 3.2) have been developed and used to investigate potential future changes in tropical cyclone (TC) activity. Compared with the previous version (version 3.1), version 3.2 yields a more realistic simulation of the present-day (1979–2003) global distribution of TCs. Moreover, the 20-km-mesh model version 3.2 is able to simulate extremely intense TCs (categories 4 and 5), which is the first time a global climate model has been able to simulate such extremely intense TCs through a multidecadal simulation. Future (2075–99) projections under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) A1B scenario are conducted using versions 3.1 and 3.2, showing consistent decreases in the number of TCs globally and in both hemispheres as climate warms. Although projected future changes in basin-scale TC numbers show some differences between the two versions, the projected frequency of TC occurrence shows a consistent decrease in the western part of the western North Pacific (WNP) and in the South Pacific Ocean (SPO), while it shows a marked increase in the central Pacific. Both versions project a future increase in the frequency of intense TCs globally; however, the degree of increase is smaller in version 3.2 than in version 3.1. This difference arises partly because version 3.2 projects a pronounced decrease in mean TC intensity in the SPO. The 20-km-mesh model version 3.2 projects a northward shift in the most intense TCs (category 5) in the WNP, indicating an increasing potential for future catastrophic damage due to TCs in this region.

How tropical cyclones respond to climate change remains an open question. Due to recent increases in computing power and climate model resolution, it is now possible to explicitly simulate tropical cyclone genesis and life cycle over long temporal and spatial scales. So far, most high-resolution simulations have explored tropical cyclones under present-day and future climate conditions. There has been little work on tropical cyclone activity in past climates. Here, we help fill in this gap with high resolution simulations of the last deglaciation including the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 21-ka), Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1; 16-ka), and Preindustrial (PI; 1850 CE). We use the water isotope tracer enabled version of the Community Earth System Model version 1.3 (iCESM1.3) at ~0.25° horizontal resolution to simulate climate and the TempestExtremes algorithm to track tropical cyclone features. Our preliminary results show intriguing spatial changes in tropical cyclone activity at the LGM relative to PI. The Atlantic and Indian basins produce less tropical cyclones while the Western Pacific produces more tropical cyclones at the LGM. Furthermore, tropical cyclone frequency decreases in the southern hemisphere but remains similar in the northern hemisphere. The LGM simulation also produces fewer strong storms (greater than 49 m/s). Further investigation will explore the physical mechanisms for the simulated tropical cyclone responses during the deglaciation as well as the effects of freshwater flux into the North Atlantic on tropical cyclone activity.