Overview of tropical cyclones and historical perspective

Tropical cyclones (TCs) are a ubiquitous extreme weather phenomenon in the tropics, with a variety of names. These storm systems involve intense circulation and rainfall that span hundreds of kilometers from the center, last for days, and can move thousands of kilometers over their lifetime. TCs have impacts at sea and on land, have a distinct spatial distribution on our planet and seasonality in each basin. These storms have exhibited variations on a range of timescales, from changes in location, structure, and intensity within a single cyclone’s lifetime to multidecadal changes in their statistics regionally and globally. Prospects for understanding, predicting, and developing strategies to mitigate the impact of TCs hinge on better understanding the mechanisms and variations of TC characteristics.