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Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change: An Assessment

Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change: An Assessment. WMO Expert Team on Climate Change Impacts on Tropical Cyclones February 2010 World Weather Research Programme Working Group on Tropical Meteorology Research. Expert Team Members:.

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Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change: An Assessment

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  1. Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change: An Assessment WMO Expert Team on Climate Change Impacts on Tropical Cyclones February 2010 World Weather Research Programme Working Group on Tropical Meteorology Research

  2. Expert Team Members: John McBride, Co-Chair Center for Australian Weather and Climate Research, Melbourne, Australia Tom Knutson, Co-Chair Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory/NOAA, Princeton, USA Johnny Chan University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China Kerry Emanuel Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA Greg Holland National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, USA Chris LandseaNational Hurricane Center/NOAA, Miami, USA Isaac Held Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory/NOAA, USA Jim KossinNational Climatic Data Center/NOAA, Madison, USA A.K. SrivastavaIndia Meteorological Department, Pune, India Masato SugiResearch Institute for Global Change/JAMSTEC, Yokohama, Japan

  3. SUMMARY ASSESSMENT: Detection and Attribution: It remains uncertain whether past changes in any tropical cyclone activity (frequency, intensity, rainfall, etc.) exceed the variability expected through natural causes, after accounting for changes over time in observing capabilities.

  4. Are there significant long-term trends in Atlantic basin tropical storm counts? * * => Significant at p=0.05 * *

  5. Simulating past variability in Atlantic tropical cyclone activity Progress has been made in developing dynamical and statistical/dynamical models for seasonal tropical cyclone frequency. Left: examples for the Atlantic basin, using high resolution atmospheric models running with observed SSTs; regional dynamical downscaling models; and statistical/dynamical techniques. These models reproduce key aspects of observed past tropical cyclone variability.

  6. SUMMARY ASSESSMENT: Tropical Cyclone Projections: Frequency • It is likely that the global frequency of tropical cyclones will either decrease or remain essentially unchanged due to greenhouse warming. We have very low confidence in projected changes in individual basins. Current models project changes ranging from -6 to • -34% globally, and up to ± 50% or more in individual basins by the late 21st century.

  7. Atlantic Hurricane Acitivity vs. Sea Surface Temperature A significant statistical correlation exists between Atlantic TC power dissipation and SST since 1950 (top). A comparable correlation exists between the power dissipation and the tropical Atlantic SST relative to mean tropical SST (bottom). These two statistical relations lead to dramatically different ‘projections’ of late 21st century Atlantic TC activity, ranging from a dramatic ~300% increase to little change.The large (~300%) increase scenario is not supported by existing downscaling models (symbols).

  8. Future TC Projections: Dependence on Climate Model Projections of late 21st century Atlantic hurricane frequency depend strongly on the particular climate model used to provide the large-scale climate change projections for the downscaling model.

  9. SUMMARY ASSESSMENT: Tropical Cyclone Projections: Intensity • Some increase in mean tropical cyclone maximum wind speed is likely (+2 to +11% globally) with projected 21st century warming, although increases may not occur in all tropical regions. The frequency of the most intense (rare/high-impact) storms will more likely than not increase by a substantially larger percentage in some basins.

  10. Tropical Cyclone Frequency Projections: Higher Intensity Storms Blue = decrease Red = increase

  11. SUMMARY ASSESSMENT: Tropical Cyclone Projections: Rainfall • Tropical cyclone rainfall rates are likely to increase. The projected magnitude is on the order of +20% within 100 km of the tropical cyclone center.

  12. Tropical Cyclone Precipitation Rate Projections Blue = decrease Red = increase

  13. SUMMARY ASSESSMENT: Tropical Cyclone Projections: Genesis, Tracks, Duration, and Surge Flooding • We have low confidence in projected changes in genesis location, tracks, duration, or areas of impact. Existing model projections do not show dramatic large-scale changes in these features. The vulnerability of coastal regions to storm surge flooding is expected to increase with future sea level rise and coastal development, although this vulnerability will also depend on future storm characteristics.

  14. Looking Ahead… Observational, theoretical and modeling studies to assess future climate changes in tropical cyclone activity… are growing progressively more credible but still have many limitations. Going forward, models with increasingly fine spatial resolution and new approaches for improving past tropical cyclone records hold substantial promise for reducing uncertainties in both the understanding of causes of past changes and future projections of tropical cyclone activity. Further information: http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v3/n3/abs/ngeo779.html

  15. Background information: Detailed assessment tables (not complete)

  16. Tropical Cyclones Frequency Projections (Late 21st century) - Summary Blue = decrease Red = increase

  17. Tropical Cyclone Intensity Projections Blue = decrease Red = increase

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