Guest Speaker: Dr. Christopher Landsea
Branch Chief
Tropical Analysis & Forecast Branch
National Hurricane Center,

Topic: Climate variability and any resulting change in the characteristics of tropical cyclones have become topics of great interest & research within the past few years. Some recent scientific articles have reported a large increase in tropical cyclone energy, numbers, and windspeeds in many basins during the last few decades in association with warmer sea surface temperatures. These increases in tropical cyclones activity have been linked to man-made greenhouse gas changes. It is not disputed that anthropogenic forcing has been the cause of at least a substantial portion of the observed warming during the 20th Century. It is likely that some increase in tropical cyclone peak windspeeds has occurred and will continue to occur if the climate continues to warm. One needs to address instead: What is the SENSITIVITY of tropical cyclone intensity, frequency and overall activity to greenhouse gas