Tropical cyclone strikes at the coastal cities of China from 1949 to 2008

The spatiotemporal features of tropical cyclone strikes from 1949 to 2008 at 49 coastal cities of China are investigated in this study. The cities in Hainan, Guangdong, and Taiwan have high strike frequencies, with the severest and most frequent average strikes found in Taiwan. In Hainan, strike clusters appear in the mid-1950s, the early 1960s and 1970s, and the late 1980s, with relative inactive frequencies from the mid-1990s to 2008, and the clusters of strikes in Guangdong are found during the 1970s. In Taiwan, the most active strikes are found during the period 1956-1963. The return periods for all typhoons are either 1 or 2 years at the coastal cities of Taiwan in contrast to 2-5 and 4-8 years at the cities of Guangdong and Fujian, respectively. Super typhoons affect Taiwan with a frequency of once every 12-30 years on average. A tropical cyclone hazard index is also created to investigate the vulnerability at these cities.