Long‐term changes in Australian tropical cyclone numbers

Abstract Tropical cyclone ( TC ) observations are used to examine changes in the TC climatology of the Australian region. The ability to investigate long‐term changes in TC numbers improves when the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) is considered. Removing variability in TC numbers associated with ENSO shows a significant decreasing trend in TC numbers at the 93–98% confidence level. Additionally, there is some indication of a temporal change in the relationship between ENSO and TC numbers, with ENSO accounting for about 35–50% of the variance in TC numbers during the first half of the study period, but only 10% during the second half.