Cyclone activity has shifted towards the coasts in east Asia in recent decades, resulting in storms of greater intensity making landfall over eastern China, Korea and Japan.
Chang-Hoi Ho of Seoul National University and his colleagues analysed east Asian storm data from 1977 to 2010. The frequency of intense storms that hit northerly areas has increased, but the intensity of cyclones making landfall farther south — from Vietnam to Taiwan — has not measurably changed.
The researchers suggest that changing atmospheric-circulation patterns resulting from a gradual warming of the western Pacific Ocean have shifted the areas where cyclones develop, moving them to the north and west.
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Strong storms shift landwards. Nature 505, 457 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/505457c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/505457c
