How precipitation over ocean regions changes with global warming is grounded in a well accepted theory, but there is so far no such theory to describe precipitation changes over land. This paper provides important theoretical, numerical and observational evidence for the sensitivity of orographically-induced precipitation in the tropics to background wind changes. The result that tropical orographic rainfall increases with cross-slope winds at a rate of 20-30% (which is more than twice the rate expected from simple "upslope flow” theory) has important implications for constraining future climate change, providing an avenue for reliable projections of continental precipitation without the need for climate models that explicitly resolve convection.

This study provides a novel Lagrangian perspective on cyclogenesis grounded in atmospheric energetics. While the energetics framework is commonly used to understand the planetary scale circulation, its application to synoptic scales is less explored. The authors establish a close connection between extratropical baroclinic zones and local available potential energy, and further analyze air parcel trajectories to link conversions between potential and kinetic energy to specific features of the developing cyclones. The results of this study offer insights into the local, synoptic and large scale contributions to cyclogenesis that are relevant for diverse disciplines in atmospheric and climate sciences.