A review of the interactions between tropical cyclones and environmental vertical wind shear

This paper presents a comprehensive review of more than a century of research on TC-VWS interactions. The literature broadly agrees that a TC vortex becomes vertically tilted, precipitation organizes into a wavenumber-1 asymmetric pattern, and thermal and kinematic asymmetries emerge when a TC encounters an environmental sheared flow.

However, these responses depend on other factors, including the magnitude and direction of horizontal winds at other vertical levels between 200 and 850 hPa, the amount and location of dry environmental air, and the underlying sea surface temperature. While early studies investigated how VWS weakens TCs, an emerging line of research has focused on understanding how TCs intensify under moderate and strong VWS (i.e., shear magnitudes greater than 5 m s21).