Unveiling the Dominant Factors Controlling the Long‐Term Changes in Northwest Pacific Tropical Cyclone Intensification Rates

Abstract Tropical cyclones (TCs), especially intense TCs, pose serious threats to life and property particularly in the affected coastal regions. Understanding the factors determining the TC intensification rate (IR) remains a great challenge. This study identifies the dominant factors responsible for the observed significant increase in TC IR over the western North Pacific in recent decades using the energetically based dynamical system model of TC intensification. It is found that the environmental dynamical efficiency mainly contributed by vertical wind shear and upper‐level divergence is responsible for the long‐term changes in TC IR during the strong TC stage, but it played a secondary role in the long‐term changes in IR during the weak TC stage. The latter were primarily contributed by the maximum potential intensity, which is primarily determined by sea surface temperature. Results also strongly suggest that global warming is the primary driver of the long‐term changes in TC IR.