Yan T, Pietrafesa LJ, Gayes PT and Bao S
An inverse correlation has been identified between the annual number of landfall typhoons along East China Seaboard (ECS) and the Tibetan Plateau snow cover (TP-SC) during the preceding winter and current spring. This correlation suggests that the Tibetan Plateau snow plays a key role in the East Asia–West Pacific regional climate system, and the system further influences typhoon track pattern off ECS. In this paper, major climatic factors accounted for the startling contrast in the number of landfall typhoons along ECS during the 1978 (2) and 2001 (7) western North Pacific (WNP) typhoon seasons were investigated. Among other climate/ocean conditions associated with typhoon activity in WNP, the preceding winter and spring TP-SC plays a crucial role to modulate the ECS landfall frequency in 1978 and 2001.