Uncertainties in tropical cyclone landfall decay

Abstract Understanding the responses of landfalling tropical cyclones to a changing climate has been a topic of great interest and research. Among them, the recently reported slowdown of tropical cyclone landfall decay in a warming climate engenders controversy. Here, the global climatology of landfall decay, based on the tropical cyclone best-track data available, reveals that the reported trends are uncertain and not universal, but spatial, temporal, data, and methodology dependent such that any claim of a climate trend could be misleading at present. The effective area of moisture supply from the ocean, most likely determined by the landfalling track modes, is demonstrated to be an important factor for the decay. This study provides timely essential clarifications of the current contentious understanding.