Effects of Tropical Cyclones on Sea Surface Temperatures
Dare, R.A. and McBride, J.L. 2011. Sea surface temperature response to tropical cyclones. Monthly Weather Review 139: 3798-3808.
Using the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS; Knapp et al., 2009) to provide the latitudes and longitudes at six-hour intervals for all TCs that occurred throughout the world over the period 1 September 1981-31 December 2008, together with a corresponding set of SST data that was provided by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center at every 0.25° of latitude and longitude (Reynolds et al., 2007), the two Australian researchers calculated the mean magnitude of the SST reductions and the average amount of time required for the reduced SSTs to return to pre-storm values.
Dare and McBride determined, first of all, that the time of maximum SST cooling occurred one day after cyclone passage, when the SST depression averaged 0.9°C. Thereafter, they report that 44% of the SST depressions returned to normal within 5 days, while 88% of them recovered within 30 days. And although there were differences among individual cyclone basins, they say the individual basin results were in broad agreement with the global mean results. Last of all, they indicate that "cyclones occurring in the first half of the cyclone season disrupt the seasonal warming trend, which is not resumed until 20-30 days after cyclone passage," while they note that "cyclone occurrences in the latter half of the season bring about a 0.5°C temperature drop from which the ocean does not recover due to the seasonal cooling cycle."
In light of the two scientists' findings, it can be appreciated that each TC that occurs somewhere in the world leaves behind it a significantly altered SST environment that would be expected to have somewhat of a tempering effect on other TCs that might come that way anytime up to as many as 20 to 30 days later.
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