Mid-tropospheric elevated moist layers (EMLs) near the melting level have been found in various regional observational studies in the tropics. Recently, a preponderance of EMLs in the presence of aggregated convection was found in cloud resolving simulations of radiative convective equilibrium (RCE), highlighting a significant circulation coupling. Here, we present global monthly EML occurrence rates based on reanalysis, yielding a broader view on where and when EMLs occur in the real world. Over the Atlantic, EML occurrence follows a seasonal cycle that maximizes in summer, aligning with maximized ITCZ intensity and organization. Resembling the results in RCE, the large-scale circulation over the Atlantic shifts from a deep overturning in January to a bottom-heavy circulation in July. While EMLs embedded in the July cross-equatorial Hadley cell are found to be sourced from the ITCZ, EMLs north of the ITCZ emerge from the strongly sheared zonal flow over West Africa.