With the data from the Tropical Cyclone Yearbooks between 1970 and 2001, statistical analyseswere performed to study the climatic features of landfall TCs (noted as TCs hereafter) in China with particularattention focused on landfall frequency, locations, sustaining, decaying, transition, intensification and dissipationetc. The results indicate that the sustaining periods of TC over land are quite different for different landfall spots,and increased from Guangxi to Zhejiang. The most obvious decreasing of TC intensity occurs mainly within 12hours after landfall. The stronger a TC is,the more it decays. The areas over which TCs are dissipated can be inHeilongjiang, the northernmost, and Yunnan, the westernmost. Besides, Guangxi is an area with highdissipating rate and subject to TC dissipation as compared with the other coastal regions.
In order to investigate the different thermodynamic mechanisms between rapid intensifying (RI) and rapid weakening (RW) tropical cyclones (TCs), the thermodynamic structures of two sets of composite TCs are analyzed based on the complete-form vertical vorticity tendency equation and the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data. Each composite is composed of five TCs, whose intensities change rapidly over the coastal waters of China. The results show that the maximum apparent heating source Q1 exists in both the upper and lower troposphere near the RI TC center, and Q1 gets stronger at the lower level during the TC intensification period. But for the RW TC, the maximum Q1 exists at the middle level near the TC center, and Q1 gets weaker while the TC weakens. The maximum apparent moisture sink Q2 lies in the mid troposphere. Q2 becomes stronger and its peak-value height rises while TC intensifies, and vice versa. The increase of diabatic heating with height near the TC center in the mid-upper troposphere and the increase of vertical inhomogeneous heating near the TC center in the lower troposphere are both favorable to the TCs' rapid intensification; otherwise, the intensity of the TC decreases rapidly.
The ability to forecast heavy rainfall associated with landfalling tropical cyclones (LTCs) can be improved with a better understanding of the mechanism of rainfall rates and distributions of LTCs. Research in the area of LTCs has shown that associated heavy rainfall is related closely to mechanisms such as moisture transport, extratropical transition (ET), interaction with monsoon surge, land surface processes or topographic effects, mesoscale convective system activities within the LTC, and boundary layer energy transfer etc.. LTCs interacting with environmental weather systems, especially the westerly trough and mei-yu front, could change the rainfall rate and distribution associated with these mid-latitude weather systems. Recently improved technologies have contributed to advancements within the areas of quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) and quantitative precipitation forecasting (QPF). More specifically, progress has been due primarily to remote sensing observations and mesoscale numerical models which incorporate advanced assimilation techniques. Such progress may provide the tools necessary to improve rainfall forecasting techniques associated with LTCs in the future.
