"Climate Change and Southern Hemisphere Tropical Cyclones" International Initiative – Progress since the First International Conference on Indian Ocean Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change - Monitoring and Prediction of Tropical Cyclones in the Indian Ocean and Climate Change - page 17

"Climate Change and Southern
Hemisphere Tropical Cyclones"
International Initiative - Progress
since the First International
Conference on Indian Ocean
Tropical Cyclones and
Climate Change
Yuriy Kuleshov
National Climate Centre, Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Melbourne, Australia and School of Mathematical and
Geospatial Sciences, Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology (RMIT) University, Melbourne, Australia
e-mail: [e-mail]
1. Introduction
Tropical cyclones (TCs) are the most dangerous and damaging weather
phenomena to regularly affect countries in the South Indian and the South
Pacific Oceans. The year-to-year impact varies, and historical records
demonstrate significant interannual variability in TC frequency and spatial
distribution of cyclone tracks. Additionally, the climate is changing on a global
scale and it is important to understand how a warmer climate may affect TC
activity. Since 1999 national meteorological services from the regions of the
Southern Hemisphere (SH) combined their efforts in improving our
understanding of changes in regional TC activity due to climate change. As the
first step of the “Climate change and Southern Hemisphere tropical cyclones”
International Initiative, high-quality TC archive for the SH has been created.
Through sharing national data archived for almost 40 years for the areas of
their responsibilities in the South Indian and the South Pacific Oceans assigned
by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and subsequent
comprehensive data analysis, two Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres