Trends in Lifetime Maximum Intensity of North American Tropical Cyclones

Tropical cyclones threaten coastal populations around the globe 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 recent finding is the poleward migration of the lifetime maximum intensity (LMI) of tropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere. Within the hemisphere, different trends are seen in individual ocean basins, specifically northerly movement in the Western Pacific and southerly movement in the North Atlantic. This study further assesses the recent spatial changes (since 1964) in the LMI of tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific and Northern Atlantic ocean basins. Relationships between the intensity and location of LMI with respect to landfall location are explored using the IBTrACS dataset and ArcGIS software. Results describe how the spatial trends in LMI location may vary based on landfall location and tropical cyclone intensity.