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From 1981 to 2018, a total of 32 numbered TCs(landfall intensity of 17.2 m s-1and above) landed in the GBA, with an average landfall intensity of 30.9 m s-1; there were 12 TCs with the intensity of typhoon and above, including 2 strong typhoons, namely Hato and Mangkhut, with landfall intensity of 48 m s-1and 42 m s-1respectively.In terms of interdecadal variation (Table 1), the number of landfalling TCs was the highest (11) in the 2000s;although the landing frequency was the least in the 2010s among the recent three decades, the average landfall intensity was the highest, reaching 34.7 m s-1.More than half of the TCs reached the intensity of typhoon and above, and the two strong typhoons landing in the GBA both occurred in the 2010s.This was in line with previous studies which argued that global warming might lead to an increase in the proportion of strong typhoons (Wang et al.[14]; Lee et al.[36]), as well as with the fact that the intensity of typhoons landing in southern China in the past some 10 years has significantly increased (Luo et al.[11]).
Frequency Landfall frequency of typhoon and above Average landfall intensity (ms-1) Economic loss (RMB 1 billion RMB) Death toll 1980s 5 1 32.0 1990s 9 4 30.6 1.28 15 2000s 11 3 27.9 1.78 25 2010s 7 4 34.7 5.93 8 Table 1. The decadal frequency, intensity and economic loss of landfalling TCs in the GBA.
From the monthly frequency and average intensity of landfalling TCs of the GBA in the past some 40 years(Fig. 2), it can be seen that the period between July and September was active with 81.3%of the total landfalling TCs in the GBA (26 TCs).Moreover, TCs classified as typhoon and stronger TCs all occurred during that period.The average landing intensity in September was the strongest, reaching 34.4 m s-1.
Figure 2. Monthly frequency (a) and average intensity (b) of landfalling TCs in the GBA during 1981-2018.
From the perspective of the spatial distribution of landing locations (Fig. 3), the number of TCs landing in Jiangmen, Huizhou, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Zhongshan was 10, 6, 6, 5, 4, and 1 respectively, and the average intensity was 30.5 m s-1, 29.7 m s-1, 33.0 m s-1, 29.8 m s-1, 25.8 m s-1and 30.0 m s-1respectively.
Figure 3. Landing positions of landfalling TCs in the GBA during 1981-2018 (The red box: landfalling TCs in the PRE).
According to disasters statistics of landfalling TCs in the GBA during 1991-2018, it can be found that, on average, TCs that landed in the GBA caused 5.6 deaths and a direct economic losses of RMB 1.74 billion Yuan annually.It is an area that is heavily affected by TC disasters in China (Jiao et al.[5]).In the past some 30 years, the direct economic losses caused by TCs in the GBA have increased significantly (Table 1).The average annual direct economic losses in the 2010s reached RMB 5.93 billion Yuan, which was 4.6 times of that in the 1990s (RMB 1.28 billion Yuan).On the one hand, it was because of the higher intensity of the TCs that landed in the 2010s, the rapid economic and social development of the GBA in the past some 10 years, and the increase in population and economic exposure.This was an important reason why TCs have increased their economic and social impact in recent years (Zhang et al.[37]).On the other hand, it was also related to the rapid development of the GBA urbanization since the 2010s(Qin et al.[6]).
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Landfalling TCs in the GBA can be divided into three categories according to the distance from the landing position to the trumpet-shaped topography of the PRE, namely, landing in the west (the west of the PRE), landing in the PRE, and landing in the east (the east of the PRE).The number of TCs that landed in the above mentioned three areas was 14, 7 and 11 respectively, with an average landfall intensity of 33.4 m s-1, 28.6 m s-1, and 29.1 m s-1.Among them, 7 typhoons and above landed in the west, 4 landed in the east, and 1 landed in the PRE.Strong typhoon Hato and Mangkhut made their landfall in the west.It can be seen that the TCs that landed in the west had the highest frequency and the strongest intensity.Moreover, there were interdecadal changes in the landing locations.The TCs that landed in the GBA in the 1980s were all in the western track and TCs mainly landed in the PRE in the 1990s, while TCs mostly landed in the eastern track in the 2000s (7 TCs)and in the western track in the 2010s (5 TCs).
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Figure 4 illustrates the tracks of the three types of landfalling TCs in the GBA.Most of the TCs that landed in the GBA were generated in the ocean at 135-140°E east of the Philippines.Only Mangkhut and Ellen were generated near 165°E.Due to the long duration, Mangkhut and Ellen had enough time to develop and strengthen, and eventually became super typhoons.Mangkhut made landfall in the west with an intensity of42 m s-1(strong typhoon level), and Ellen made landfall in the PRE with an intensity of 40 m s-1(typhoon level).
Figure 4. Track diagram of three types of landfalling TCs (a: landfall in the west; b: landfall in the PRE; c and d: landfall in the east.The colors of the track line represent different TC levels, among which gray means below the intensity of tropical depression, green means tropical depression, blue means tropical storm, cyan means severe tropical storm, yellow means typhoon, orange means strong typhoon and red means super typhoon.Numbers near the birth point of typhoon indicate the TC number ID.The shaded area represents the average position of the NPSH).
As for the three types of TC tracks, it can be found that the TCs that landed in the west were mainly westbound, and most of them entered Guangxi Province(Fig. 4a).After landing, their duration was longer with an average duration of 19.6 h on the land (the central wind speed was 10.8 m s-1and above; the same below).Most of the TCs that landed in the PRE moved towards the north-central part of Guangdong Province after landing, and would soon disintegrate or die out, with an average duration of 16.7 h on the land (Fig. 4b).Some of the TCs that landed in the east moved westward towards Guangxi Province after landing (Fig. 4c), and some of them moved towards Jiangxi Province, with the longest on-land duration up to 20.6 h (Fig. 4d).
Figure 4 further shows the average position of the Northwest Pacific Subtropical High (NPSH).It can be found that the NPSH corresponding to westbound TCs was relatively westward (Fig. 4a and Fig. 4c).The NPSH ridge in Fig. 4c was more westward and northward, which leads to TCs mostly crossing the Bashi Channel.However, in Fig. 4a, TCs mostly made landfall over Luzon Island.The NPSH corresponding to northbound TCs was relatively eastward (Fig. 4b and 4d).The NPSH ridge in Fig. 4d was more eastward and southward, which made the genesis position of TCs in Fig. 4d more southward.The TCs in Fig. 4d mostly moved through the central Philippines, while TCs in Fig. 4b mostly made landfall over Luzon Island.Above all, the NPSH plays a key role in the development of TC tracks landing in the GBA.
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The precipitation information of each meteorological station caused by the three types of TCs was calculated to obtain the MPP.It can be seen that the TCs that landed in the PRE caused a total of 13 stations'MPP to exceed 100 mm, and that in the two sides of the PRE reached 150 mm and above (Fig. 5Ⅰb).Among them, the MPP in Shenzhen (198.7 mm) and Doumen(196.8 mm) exceeded 190 mm, becoming the largest and second largest value of the MPP among the three types of TCs.The TCs that landed in the west caused more precipitation to the west of the PRE.10 stations'MPP exceeded 100 mm (Fig. 5Ⅰa).Among them, the MPP of Shangchuan Island and Shenzhen was 186.3 mm and161.8 mm respectively, the largest and second largest value of the MPP caused by the TCs that landed in the west.The TCs that made landfall in the east caused the MPP to exceed 100 mm only in five stations (Fig. 5Ⅰc), the largest of which occurred on Shangchuan Island(132.8 mm).
Figure 5. The MPP and the MPW of the three types of landfalling TCs (a: landing in the west, b: landing in the PRE, c: landing in the east; Ⅰrefers to precipitation, units: mm; Ⅱrefers to wind speed, units: m s-1).
The statistics of the MPW caused by the three types of TCs indicated that the TCs that landed in the west could cause greater wind speeds in the west of the PRE, with the MPW exceeding 15 m s-1in 5 stations (Fig. 5).Among them, the MPW of Shangchuan Island (27.1 m s-1) and Zhuhai (23.3 m s-1) exceeded 20 m s-1, becoming the largest and second largest of the three types of TCs.The TCs that landed in the PRE caused the MPW in 3 stations to exceed 15 m s-1, of which Shangchuan Island (18.6 m s-1) was the largest (Fig. 5Ⅱb).The MPW of most of the TCs that landed in the east was 9 m s-1and below, and only the MPW of Huidong exceeded 15 m s-1(16.2 m s-1)(Fig. 5Ⅱc).It can be seen that compared with the other two types of landfalling TCs, the TCs that landed in the east had a relatively small impact range.
Regional average statistics show (Table 2) that the strong winds caused by TCs that landed in the west were relatively strong, with the MMDW reaching 28.6 m s-1and an average HWD of 4.7, which were much larger than those landed in the PRE and in the east.The precipitation caused by the TCs that landed in the PRE were relatively strong; the MPP, MMDP, and average HRD of which were 99.9 mm, 220.0 mm, and 8.1, respectively.In particular, the MMDP was 58.7 mm and43.0 mm more than that of the other two types, indicating that the TCs that landed in the PRE were easier to bring heavy rainfall.
Landing in the west Landing in the PRE Landing in the east Total frequency 14 7 11 MPP (mm) 93.4 99.9 73.3 MMDP (mm) 161.3 220.0 177.0 MMDW (m s-1) 28.6 20.8 17.6 HRD (station/day) 7.4 8.1 6.1 HWD (station/day) 4.7 2.7 0.6 Table 2. The characteristics of the three types of landfalling TCs in the GBA.
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Studies have shown that the landing location and movement path are the key factors to the impact of TC disasters (Jie et al.[38]; Li et al.[3]).Table 3 shows losses caused by landing TCs since 1991 in the GBA and Table 4 shows the statistical results of the three types of landfalling TCs.The results showed that the cumulative death toll caused by TCs that landed in the west and east was 77 and 72 respectively, while the number caused by TCs that landed in the PRE was 13.The direct economic loss caused by the TCs that landed in the PRE was RMB2.61 billion Yuan, accounting for 5.2%of the total loss, that caused by the TCs that landed in the east was RMB6.35 billion Yuan, accounting for 12.6%of the total loss, and that caused by the TCs that landed in the west was the highest, reaching RMB 41.52 billion Yuan, 82.2%of the total loss, far more than those of the other two types of landfalling TCs.
TC number ID Deaths (persons) Economic loss (RMB 100 million Yuan) Category TC number ID Deaths (persons) Economic loss (RMB 100 million Yuan) Category 9108 1 3.1 Ⅰ 0707 0 0.1 Ⅱ 9316 31 23.6 Ⅰ 0812 0 0.9 Ⅱ 9318 18 47.6 Ⅰ 9505 6 14.1 Ⅲ 0907 1 4.2 Ⅰ 9509 3 10.1 Ⅲ 0915 1 9.3 Ⅰ 0013 0 2.9 Ⅰ 1208 8 11.5 Ⅰ 0104 0 1.8 Ⅰ 1713 13 239.8 Ⅰ 0313 56 22.1 Ⅰ 1714 0 3.2 Ⅰ 0409 0 0.0 Ⅰ 1822 4 72.8 Ⅰ 0806 7 6.7 Ⅰ 9206 1 0.7 Ⅱ 0904 0 0.0 Ⅰ 9710 0 6.2 Ⅱ 0906 0 3.1 Ⅰ 9908 12 8.7 Ⅱ 1604 0 1.4 Ⅰ 9910 0 9.6 Ⅱ 1702 0 1.3 Ⅰ *Ⅰrefers to TCs landing in the west, Ⅱrefers to TCs landing in the PRE, andⅢrefers to TCs landing in the east. Table 3. Losses caused by landing TCs since 1991 in the GBA.
Landing in the west Landing in the PRE Landing in the east The number of deaths (persons) 77 13 72 Direct economic loss (RMB 100 million Yuan) 415.2 26.1 63.5 Proportion of deaths (%) 47.5 8.0 44.5 Proportion of direct economic loss (%) 82.2 5.2 12.6 Table 4. Cumulative losses caused by three types of landfalling TCs in the GBA.
We further analyze the spatial distribution of disaster-induced losses.Due to limited samples, if the average value is used in spatial analysis, on the one hand, the corresponding average value of the cities with fewer samples may not have climatological significance; on the other hand, the local extreme large value may also enlarge the average value as a whole, resulting in defects in horizontal comparison.Therefore, cumulative analysis is adopted in this paper.
In terms of the spatial distribution (Fig. 6), among the cities in the GBA, the largest cumulative direct economic losses caused by TCs were in Zhuhai (RMB21.03 billion Yuan), followed by Jiangmen (RMB 10.51 billion Yuan) and Huizhou (RMB 5.75 billion Yuan).The TCs that landed in the west caused 99%and 97%of their own total losses in Zhuhai and Jiangmen respectively; the largest direct economic losses caused by TCs that landed in the east occurred in Huizhou, accounting for 64%of the total losses in Huizhou.By contrast, the figure for the TCs that landed in the west was 22%.The cumulative direct economic losses caused by TCs that landed in the PRE were relatively small.
Figure 6. The cumulative death toll and direct economic losses caused by three types of landfalling TCs during 1991-2018 (a: landfall in the west, b: landfall in the PRE, and c: landfall in the east; Ⅰrefers to the death toll, units: person; Ⅱrefers to the direct economic loss, units: RMB 100 million Yuan).
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This paper applied the synthetic analysis method mentioned in Section 2.2 to diagnose the basic atmospheric circulation field before and after the TCs made their landfall, in order to further analyze the reasons of differences in the wind and precipitation characteristics among the three types of landfalling TCs in the GBA.Circulation fields related to precipitation included 850 hPa wind field, 850 hPa water vapor flux divergence field, 850 hPa vorticity field, and vertical velocity profile, and the circulation fields related to wind speed were mainly horizontal pressure gradients.
Figure 7 shows the differences of the 850 hPa synthetic wind field between the TCs that landed in the PRE and the ones in the west and east.It can be seen that, compared with the TCs that landed in the west (Fig. 7a), the one that landed in the PRE had a southwestnortheast anomalous wind speed zone, and a weak abnormal cyclonic shear from the center of the TC to the point (40, 50) on its north side.Compared with the TC that landed in the east (Fig. 7b), there was no abnormal wind speed zone in Fig. 7a, but an obvious anomalous confluence area near the center, where northerly and southwesterly wind anomalies met, forming a weak cyclone circulation in the northeast.The weak anomalous shear and the anomalous convergence of the north and south air flow were conducive to the convergence of water vapor around the center of the TC.As shown in Fig. 8, compared with the TCs that landed in the west (Fig. 8a) and the east (Fig. 8b), the ones that landed in the PRE had an obvious water vapor anomalous convergence center, which was conducive to the formation of precipitation system and heavy precipitation of the TCs that landed in the PRE.
Figure 7. The difference of the 850 hPa synthetic wind field between the TCs that landed in the PRE and the ones that landed in the west (a) and east (b)(units: m s-1; the rotation symbol indicates the location of the TC center, the abscissa and ordinate are the grid points, and the grid distance is 0.25°×0.25°; the same below).
Figure 8. Same as Fig. 7, but for the water vapor flux divergence (units: 10-5·g/(s·cm2·hPa)).
Figure 9 shows the distribution of the relative vorticity difference at 850hPa.Near the TC center, there was an abnormally closed area of positive vorticity with a radius of about 100-200 km in Fig. 9a and 9b, indicating that near the center of the TC that landed in the PRE, the cyclonic circulation was more intense.The diagnostic analysis of the vertical velocity longitudealtitude profile (Fig. 10) showed that roughly within the longitude range corresponding to the grid points No.37-45, there were obvious abnormal ascending motions in Fig. 10a and 10b, which could extend to the upper troposphere.Abnormal ascending movement was conducive to transporting water vapor upwards and promoting the development of precipitation.
Figure 9. Same as Fig. 7, but for the relative vorticity (units: 10-5s-1).
Figure 10. Same as Fig. 7, but for the vertical velocity longitude-height profile difference averaged along the 35-50 grid point latitude (y-axis units: hPa, vertical speed: 10-1Pa s-1).
In summary, the diagnosis of some factors related to precipitation near the TC center shows that the TCs landing in the PRE were more likely to bring heavy rainfall, making the MPP, MMDP and the number of heavy rainstorm days larger than that of the TCs landing in the west and east.
The uneven distribution of the horizontal air pressure leads to pressure gradient, which makes the air flow from the high-pressure area to the low-pressure area, the main factor in the formation of wind.Under normal circumstances, areas with dense isobars (high pressure gradients) tend to have higher wind speeds, while the wind speeds in areas with sparse isobars are relatively low.Of course, the surface wind speed has a lot to do with the roughness of the local underground surface and topography.For the convenience of calculation, by taking the TC center point as the basic point and the average pressure of the four grid points in the cell where the TC center was located as the basic value, this paper calculated the difference between the pressure of each grid point and the basic point, which is divided by the distance of the two grid points.The obtained value represents the pressure gradient between two points.Fig. 11 shows the difference of the composite pressure gradient between the TCs landing in the west, in the PRE and in the east.It can be seen that in the two figures, there was a closed center of the positive anomaly in the range of 40-45 in the northwest of the TC center, indicating that the TC that landed in the west has a larger pressure gradient in these areas, which led to a relatively high wind speed to a certain extent.This corresponded to the larger wind speed area in the west of the PRE in Fig. 5Ⅱa.On the contrary, the negative value areas in the northeast of the TC center showed that the wind speed in the area east of the PRE caused by the TC that landed in the west was relatively low.