  P\"aschke et al. (JFM, 701, 137--170 (2012)) studied the nonlinear dynamics
of strongly tilted vortices subject to asymmetric diabatic heating by
asymptotic methods. They found, \ia, that an azimuthal Fourier mode~1 heating
pattern can intensify or attenuate such a vortex depending on the relative
orientation of tilt and heating asymmetries. The theory originally addressed
the gradient wind regime which, asymptotically speaking, corresponds to vortex
Rossby numbers of order unity in the limit. Formally, this restricts the
applicability of the theory to rather weak vortices in the near equatorial
region. It is shown below that said theory is, in contrast, uniformly valid for
vanishing Coriolis parameter and thus applicable to vortices up to low
hurricane strengths. In addition, the paper presents an extended discussion of
the asymptotics as regards their physical interpretation and their implications
for the overall vortex dynamics. The paper's second contribution is a series of
three-dimensional numerical simulations examining the effect of different
orientations of dipolar heat release on idealized tropical cyclones.
Comparisons with numerical solutions of the asymptotic equations yield evidence
that supports the original predictions. In addition, the influence of
asymmetric diabatic heat release on the time evolution of centerline tilt is
analysed further, and a steering mechanism based on the orientation of the
heating dipole is revealed.
