Reply to Comment on 'Roles of interbasin frequency changes in the poleward shifts of maximum intensity location of tropical cyclones'

Abstract

Recently a pronounced global poleward shift in the latitude at which the maximum intensities of tropical cyclones (TC) occur has been identified. Moon et al (2015 Environ. Res. Lett. 10 104004) reported that the poleward migration is significantly influenced by changes in interbasin frequency. These frequency changes are a larger contributor to the poleward shift than the intrabasin migration component. The strong role of interbasin frequency changes in the poleward migration also suggest that the poleward trend could be changed to an opposite equatorward trend in the future due to multi-decadal variability that significantly impacts Northern Hemisphere TC frequency. In the accompanying comment, Kossin et al (2016 Environ. Res. Lett. 11 068001) questioned the novelty and robustness of our results by raising issues associated with subsampling, contributions from some basins to poleward migration, and data dependency. Here, we explain the originality and importance of our main findings, which are different from those of Kossin et al (2014 Nature 509 349-52) and reaffirm that our conclusions are maintained regardless of the issues that were raised.