Understanding the relative contribution of dynamic and thermodynamic factors to tropical cyclone (TC) rainfall is an important challenge. This study examines the response of TC precipitation due to increasing sea surface temperatures (SSTs) using convection-permitting model simulations. The sensitivity of key TC rainfall metrics, including the azimuthally averaged maximum precipitation rate were examined. The amount of scaling of precipitation with SST depends on the chosen TC precipitation metric and mostly surpasses the Clausius–Clapeyron (CC) relationship. The azimuthally averaged maximum precipitation rate (Pm) exceeds twice the rate expected under the CC relationship (2CC). By decomposing the scaling rates into thermodynamic and dynamic contributions using a physical diagnostic method, we demonstrate that dynamic changes primarily (about 73%) drive the scaling of Pm. The available moisture plays a much smaller role than expected and scales surprisingly at less than CC. The dynamic contribution is always large for all precipitation metrics. The combination of increased moisture and updrafts enhances moisture convergence, thereby intensifying precipitation and ultimately leading to a super-CC relationship. The ‘exceeding 2CC’ behavior is attributed to the dominance of dynamic effects, particularly enhanced upward motion near the TC inner core. Accurate projections of future changes in TC precipitation therefore depend critically on accurate projections of changes in TC dynamics.

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