Journal article

Tropical cyclones and climate change

Thomas R Knutson, John L McBride, Johnny Chan, Kerry Emanuel, Greg Holland, Chris Landsea, Isaac Held, James P Kossin, AK Srivastava, Masato Sugi

NATURE GEOSCIENCE | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2010

Abstract

Whether the characteristics of tropical cyclones have altered, or will alter, in a changing climate has been subject of considerable debate. An overview of recent research indicates that greenhouse warming will cause stronger storms, on average, but a decrease in the frequency of tropical cyclones.

University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

The authors constitute an expert team established by the World Meteorological Organization to provide advice to national meteorological and hydrological services on tropical cyclones and climate change. T.K. and J.L.M. are co-chairs of this team. J.L.M was supported by the West Australian Government Indian Ocean Climate Initiative. The team wishes to thank the Sultanate of Oman and Sultan Qaboos University for kindly sponsoring the initial discussion meeting for this report (March 2009 in Muscat, Oman). We also thank our colleagues for several helpful reviews, discussions and figure contributions.