Tropical cyclones modulate drought characteristics in the Hurricane Region of the Americas

Drought and tropical cyclones (TCs) are among the deadliest and costliest natural hazards, and they are expected to intensify in the twenty-first century because of anthropogenic climate change. The Hurricane Region of the Americas (HRA), an area often impacted by TCs and drought of the Americas, hosts some of the most vulnerable countries to these hazards and climate change worldwide. While TCs and drought have been extensively studied separately, there is little research on their interplay in the HRA, especially in areas without quality, long climate data. Here, we analyze the effects of TCs on drought characteristics (e.g., severity and duration) in the HRA between 1985 and 2023 using high-resolution gridded climate data and an array of drought metrics. Our results yield the first-of-its-kind estimate of the interplay between TCs and drought across the entire HRA. We find that, while TCs contribute to 4–15% of annual and seasonal mean precipitation across the region, on average, they ameliorated or terminated drought (e.g., an improvement of at least one drought rank on each metric) at least once in ~ 60% of the HRA in a single month in 1985–2023 (averaged estimates from all drought metrics). We suggest an appropriate analysis of TC-drought interactions should consider several drought metrics, even if sophisticated land-surface models are used.