The climatic changes of landfall tropic al cyclones in China over the past 58 years

By using the data from the Tropical Cyclone Yearbooks, changes of landfall tropical cyclones (TCs) in China over the past 58 years (1949-2006) were analyzed , in terms of their tracks, numbers, duration, intensity, probability distributi ons as well as interannual and decadal variabilities. The results indicate that the landfall TCs numbers have decreased but the numbers hardly changed for typho ons. The frequency decreased evidently for tropical depressions and (strong) tro pical storms landed in southern China, but the variation of frequency of TCs ove r eastern China is not obvious. Over the past 58 years, the most northern latitu de of landfall TCs for each year tends to be more southward, and the most southe rn latitude turns to be more northward, resulting in a decrease of the southno rth range of landfall TCs, i.e., more TCs tend to make landfall between 23°N an d 35°N, and fewer in the north of 35°N and south of 23°N . The landfall se ason is decreased by about one month. The intensity of landfall TCs has increased, and the intensity difference between the strongest and the weakest TCs reduced. Furthermore, the skew of intensity shows an upward tendency, indicating the proportion of stronger landfall TCs has increased. Finally, the annual averaged intensity of landfall TCs has enhanced for both southern China and eastern China, with a stronger increase appearing in the former than the latter.