Interannual Variability of Tropical Cyclone Activity and Regional Hadley Circulation over the Northeastern Pacific

The interannual variability of the regional Hadley circulation (HC) and tropical cyclone (TC) activity over the Northeastern Pacific (NEP) was investigated. The interannual variability of the HC in the NEP hurricane season is found dominated by a mode (M1EP) regulating the strength and meridional extent of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. M1EP has a more robust correlation with NEP TC activity than the El Niño–Southern Oscillation sea surface temperature indices. The strong correlation is attributed to the impacts of M1EP on environmental conditions. In addition, the leading mode of the Atlantic HC, which has an anticorrelation with M1EP, also strongly impacts NEP TC activity. The findings, together with Zhang and Wang (2013), highlight the role of the HC in controlling the variability of TC activity as well as the interbasin connection between the NEP and the Atlantic. The regional HC is thus recommended as a useful metric to benchmark models in simulating TC activity.