Long-term Meridional Variation of Lifetime Maximum Intensity of Tropical Cyclone over the Western North Pacific

Over the past 40 years, the annual mean location of tropical cyclones (TC) lifetime maximum intensities (LMI) has been poleward migration. In this study, we evaluated the factors affecting the long-term changes in LMI location using track pattern classification metrics. TCs in the western North Pacific were classified into seven clusters using Fuzzy c-mean clustering. Using the track patterns, we calculated the effects of the track pattern change and the pure change on the total variation of LMI latitudes. The results indicate that the long-term poleward migration of LMI latitudes is associated with the pure change rather than the track pattern change. Additionally, the study suggests that the long-term change in the pure change is strongly linked to local sea surface temperature warming. The track pattern change exhibits interannual variation associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, but they cannot have a significant effect on the long-term trend of LMI latitudes.