Meridional shift of climatological tropical cyclone genesis location in the western North Pacific

Abstract

Climatological monthly mean tropical cyclone (TC) genesis location in the western North Pacific exhibits a marked meridional shift from June to November and the physical cause of such a shift was investigated through the diagnosis of observational and reanalysis datasets. Two genesis potential indices were used to examine key environmental parameters affecting the meridional shift. The diagnosis results indicate that dynamic parameters such as vertical and meridional wind shears play a dominant role in promoting both the northward advance and southward retreat of the mean genesis latitude, while the effect of vertical velocity is negligible. The thermodynamic parameters such as relative humidity and potential intensity in general play a minor role, except that the latter helps promote northward advance during the early TC season. The change of the environmental parameters is closely linked to the sub‐seasonal evolution of the monsoon trough and subtropical high in the western North Pacific. Maximum synoptic‐scale variability also experiences a similar meridional shift, contributing to the TC genesis location shift.