Abstract
Although Meiyu rainfall has its in-phase spatial variability over the Changjiang-Huaihe River Valley (CHRV) in most years, it is distributed in some years like a seesaw to the north and south of the Changjiang River, when the precipitation tends to be nearly normal throughout the valley, which would inevitably increase difficulties of making short-term prediction of the rainfall. For this reason, EOF analysis is made on 15 related stations’ precipitation from June to July during 1951–2004, revealing that the EOF2 mode shows largely a north-south seesaw-like pattern, and thereby classifying Meiyu patterns into two types: “northern drought and southern flood (NDSF)” and “northern flood and southern drought (NFSD)”. Afterwards, the authors investigated ocean-atmospheric characteristics when these two anomalous types occured using the NCEP reanalysis (version 1) and the extended reconstructed SSTs (version 2). The results show that in the NDSF years, the low-level frontal area and moisture convergence center lie more southward, accompanied by weaker subtropical summer monsoon over East Asia, with the western Pacific subtropical high and 200 hPa South Asia High being more southward. Both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere Annular Modes are stronger than normal in preceding February; SST is higher off China during boreal winter and spring and the opposite happens in the NFSD years. Also, this seesaw-form Meiyu rainfall distribution might be affected to some degree by the previous ENSO event.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Zhu K Z. Southeast monsoon and rainfall in China. Acta Geogra Sin (in Chinese), 1934, 1(1): 1–27
Tao S Y, Zhao Y J, Chen X M. Meiyu in China. In: Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, eds. East Asian Monsoon and Torrential Rain in China (in Chinese). Beijing: China Meteorological Press, 1998. 3–46
Fu C B. Possible relationship between the shift of the Meiyu rainband in the mid-and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and ice/snow over Antarctica. Chin Sci Bull (in Chinese), 1981, 26(8): 484–486
Xie A, Mao J Y, Song Y Y, et al. Climatological characteristics of moisture transport over Yangtze River basin. J Appl Meteor Sci (in Chinese), 2002, 13(1): 67–77
Wei F Y, Xie Y. Interannual and interdecadal oscillations of Meiyu over the Middle-lower reaches of the Changjiang River for 1885–2000. J Appl Meteor Sci (in Chinese), 2005, 16(4): 492–499
Chen Y M, Qian Y F. The analysis and numerical simulation of atmospheric circulation of Meiyu rainfall in the mid-lower reaches of the Changjiang River. J Trop Meteor (in Chinese), 2006, 22(1): 26–33
Wu Z W, Jiang Z H, He J H. The comparison analysis of flood and droughts features among the first flood period in South China, Meiyu period in the Yangtze River and Huaihe River valleys and rainy season in north China in the late 50 years. Chin J Atmos Sci (in Chinese), 2006, 30(3): 391–401
Zhou Y S, Gao S T, Shen S S P. A diagnostic study of formation and structure of the Meiyu front system over East Asia. J Meteor Soc Japan, 2004, 82(6): 1565–1576
Ding Y H, Lu E. An essay of Meiyu prediction in the light of the syno-dynamical study of summer monsoon behavior during 1991 flood in China. Clim Environ Res (in Chinese), 1997, 2(1): 32–38
Wang W C, Gong W, Wei H L. A regional model simulation of the 1991 severe precipitation event over the Yangtze-Huai River valley. Part I: Precipitation and circulation statistics. J Clim, 2000, 13: 74–92
Mao J Y, Wu G X. Interseasonal variability in the Yangtze-Huaihe River rainfall and subtropical high during the 1991 Meiyu period. Acta Meteor Sin (in Chinese), 2005, 63(5): 762–770
Wu Z W, Li J P, He J H, et al. Occurrence of droughts and floods during the normal summer monsoons in the mid-and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Geophys Res Lett, 2006, 33: L05813, doi: 10.1029/2005GL024487
Ting M F, Wang H. Summer time U.S. precipitation variability and its relation to Pacific sea surface temperature. J Clim, 1997, 10: 1853–1873
Kalnay E, Kanamitus M, Kistler R, et al. The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bull Amer Meteor Soc, 1996, 77: 437–471
Smith T M, Reynolds R W. Improved extended reconstruction of SST (1854–1997). J Clim, 2004, 17: 2466–2477
Zhu Q G, Lin J R, Shou S W, et al. Synoptic principles and methods (in Chinese). 3rd ed. Beijing: China Meteorological Press, 2000. 62, 353
Ding Y H, Chan J C L. The East Asian summer monsoon: An overview. Meteor Atmos Phys, 2005, 89: 117–142
Zhuo D Q, Zheng Y Q, Li W, et al. The disquisition of atmospheric water vapor transports and income and expenses in the typical drought and flood summer in the Jiang-Huai valley. Sci Meteor Sin (in Chinese), 2006, 26(3): 244–251
Wu R G, Chen L T. Relationship between the global circulation at 500 hPa and Meiyu in mid-and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Chin J Atmos Sci (in Chinese), 1994, 18(6): 691–700
Gong D Y, Zhu J H, Wang S W. Significant relationship between spring AO and the summer rainfall along the Yangtze River. Chin Sci Bull, 2002, 47(11): 948–951
Wei F Y, Song Q Y, Han X. The sea level pressure pattern in the Northern Hemisphere and its impact on the Meiyu in the mid-and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in recent century. Prog Nat Sci (in Chinese), 2006, 16(2): 215–222
Wu Z W, He J H, Han G R, et al. The relationship between Meiyu in the mid-and lower reaches of the Yangtze River valley and the boreal spring Southern Hemisphere annular mode. J Trop Meteor (in Chinese), 2006, 22(1): 79–85
Zhang Q, Liu P, Wu G X. The relationship between the flood and drought in the mid-and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the SST over the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Chin J Atmos Sci (in Chinese), 2003, 27(6): 992–1006
Lin J, He J H. Influence of SST pattern on the rainfall in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Quart J Appl Meteorol (in Chinese), 2000, 11(3): 339–347
Chao J P. Large-scale air-sea interactions and long term weather forecast. Chin J Atmos Sci (in Chinese), 1977, 3: 223–233
Zhao Y P, McBean G A. Influence of the Kuroshio region marine heating anomaly on the Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation. Oceanol Limnol Sin (in Chinese), 1996, 27(3): 246–250
Zhao Y P, Chen Y L, Weng X C. Advances in the mid-latitude air-sea interaction research. Adv Earth Sci (in Chinese), 1997, 12(1): 32–36
Yu Z H, Ge X Z. Numerical simulated of seasonal movement of subtropical high ridge line II. Acta Oceanol Sin, 1986, 5(2): 183–194
Liu Y M, Wu G X, Ren R C. Relationship between the subtropical anticyclone and diabatic heating. J Clim, 2004, 17: 682–698
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40605022), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2006CB403607), and the Key Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China “South China Sea Monsoon Experiment (SCSMEX)”
About this article
Cite this article
Zhu, X., He, J. & Wu, Z. Meridional seesaw-like distribution of the Meiyu rainfall over the Changjiang-Huaihe River Valley and characteristics in the anomalous climate years. CHINESE SCI BULL 52, 2420–2428 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0280-3
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0280-3