Tropical cyclones have been hypothesized to influence climate by pumping heat into the ocean, but a direct measure of this warming effect is still lacking. We quantified cyclone-induced ocean warming by directly monitoring the thermal expansion of water in the wake of cyclones, using satellite-based sea surface height data that provide a unique way of tracking the changes in ocean heat content ...

.......................................................................................................................... iii About the Author..............................................................................................................iv A Note on Order Statistics and Property Losses from Catastrophic Hurricanes and Floods in the USA ..............................................

North Australian tropical savanna accounts for 12% of the world’s total savanna land cover. Accordingly, understanding processes that govern carbon, water and energy exchange within this biome is critical to global carbon and water budgeting. Climate and disturbances drive ecosystem carbon dynamics. Savanna ecosystems of the coastal and sub-coastal of north Australia experience a unique combina...

We introduce a Bayesian semiparametric methodology for joint quantile regression with linearity and piecewise linearity constraints. We develop a probability model for all quantile curves in a continuum that define a coherent sampling distribution of the response variable. We provide a detailed illustration of model fitting and inference by analyzing wind speed trends of tropical cyclones in th...

Too close for comfort Tropical cyclones are becoming stronger and occurring at higher latitudes than in the past. Wang Toumi report that cyclones' points of maximum intensity also have been coming closer to land since 1982, distance decreasing by about 30 kilometers per decade as their paths drift poleward westward (see Perspective Camargo Wing). This shift could increase danger tropical pose c...

[1] Recent work has shown a statistical climatological link between African dust outbreaks and North Atlantic tropical cyclone frequency and intensity. However, a definite causal link between year-to-year changes in African dust and Atlantic tropical cyclones has yet to be proven. Here we show that variability in Atlantic dust cover is linked to changes in tropical cyclone activity through the ...

347 MARCH 2008 AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY | T ropical cyclones account for the majority of natural catastrophic losses in the developed world and, next to floods, are the leading cause of death and injury among natural disasters affecting developing countries (UNDP/BCPR 2004). It is thus of some interest to understand how their behavior is affected by climate change, whether natural or ant...

Affecting scores of people with seemingly insurmountable and unmanageable costs, tropical cyclones (TCs) are one of the most devastating extreme weather events. In this special issue, we highlight and summarize some of the recent studies that make use of detailed observations and high-resolution numerical models to analyze tropical cyclones from their genesis to post-landfall impacts. Focused a...

[1] Precipitation over and near mountains is not caused by topography but, rather, occurs when storms of a type that can occur anywhere (deep convection, fronts, tropical cyclones) form near or move over complex terrain. Deep convective systems occurring near mountains are affected by channeling of airflow near mountains, capping of moist boundary layers by flow subsiding from higher terrain, a...