Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Geography

Major Professor

Kelsey N. Ellis

Committee Members

Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, Bruce A. Ralston

Abstract

Tropical cyclones threaten coastal populations around the world each year. Thus, the climatology of tropical cyclones is an immediate research need, specifically to better understand their long-term patterns and elucidate their future in a changing climate. One important pattern that has recently been detected is the poleward shift of the lifetime maximum intensity (LMI) of tropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere. My study further assesses the recent spatial changes in the LMI of tropical cyclones in the Northern Atlantic and Western Pacific basins since 1964. I explored relationships between the intensity and location of LMI with respect to landfall location using the IBTrACS dataset and ArcGIS software. I found that different trends in LMI migration have occurred in individual ocean basins, specifically southerly movement in the North Atlantic and northerly movement in the Western Pacific. Separating the storms by intensity revealed that the strongest storms follow the general trend in their basin at a faster rate. The most intense tropical cyclones are reaching maximum intensity closer to landfall in the Western Pacific basin and farther away from landfall in the North Atlantic. This combination of a poleward shift of LMI and a smaller distance between LMI and landfall for the strongest storms in the Western Pacific basin may adversely affect coastal communities. The results confirm the previous finding that the strongest storms may experience the greatest changes in a warming climate.

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