In this first part of a two-part paper, a new, high-resolution version of the ACCESS climate model is examined to determine its ability to simulate tropical cyclone climatology. The results showed the model has a good simulation with some model biases, motivating its use in part ii of this paper.

Part two of the paper examined the relationship between climate variations and tropical cyclone formation using a high-resolution climate model forced by a number of highly simplified sea surface temperature patterns.

The best relationships between individual climate variables and tropical cyclone formation were found with atmospheric stability and vertical wind changes. These variables are thus most likely to be important relationships in any quantitative theory of tropical cyclone formation.