The 2009 Hurricane Season in the Eastern North Pacific Basin: An Analysis of Environmental Conditions

Abstract

espite the presence of an intensifying El Niño event, the 2009 eastern North Pacific hurricane season was near normal when considering overall hurricane activity. This is in contrast to the relative lull in activity observed between 1998 and 2008. Previous research has noted that the eastern North Pacific should be subdivided into two development regions, the western development region (WDR; 10°?20°N, 116°W?180°) and the eastern development region (EDR; 10°?20°N, North American coastline to 115.9°W), when examining interannual hurricane variability. In 2009, the EDR saw below average numbers of tropical cyclones of all intensities, while the WDR saw near-normal activity. However, activity in both regions varied sharply from month to month with periods of high activity in August and October and lower activity in July and September. This monthly variability was also observed in primary environmental forcing factors such as total precipitable water, tropospheric vertical wind shear, and low-level relative vorticity, particularly for the WDR. This variability was obscured by simply examining seasonal means. It is shown that for the 2009 season, large-scale environmental factors forced by the El Niño event and two cycles of the Madden?Julian oscillation contributed strongly to the observed patterns of cyclone activity across the basin.