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Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Activity in 2018: A Season of Extremes
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Activity in 2018: A Season of Extremes

Si Gao, Langfeng Zhu, Wei Zhang and Xinyong Shen
Scientific reports, Vol.10(1), pp.5610-5610
03/27/2020
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-62632-5
PMCID: PMC7101427
PMID: 32221386
url
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62632-5View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The 2018 tropical cyclone (TC) season over the western North Pacific (WNP) underwent two extreme situations: 18 TCs observed during June–August (JJA) and ranked the second most active summer in the satellite era; only 5 TCs that occurred during September–October (SO), making it the most inactive period since the late 1970s. Here we attribute the two extreme situations based on observational analyses and numerical experiments. The extremely active TC activity and northward shift of TC genesis during JJA of 2018 can be attributed to the WNP anomalous low-level cyclone, which is due primarily to El Niño Modoki and secondarily to the positive phase of the Pacific Meridional Mode (PMM). Overall, the extremely inactive TC activity during SO of 2018 is due to the absence of TC formation over the South China Sea and Philippine Sea, which can be attributed to the in-situ anomalous low-level anticyclone associated with the positive phase of the Indian Ocean Dipole, although the positive PMM phase and El Niño Modoki still hold.
 Atmospheric science Climate sciences

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