Abstract
Heavy rainfall (HR) often hits the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau (EETP) and causes severe flood and landslide in summer, especially in July. In this study, the authors investigate the interannual variation of July HR events and its possible causes. The maximum number of days with HR in July is located at the EETP in China. It is significantly and negatively correlated with the rainfall in southeastern China. More HR events are accompanied by an anomalous lower-tropospheric anticyclone over southeastern China, a westward movement of the western North Pacific subtropical high, and enhanced rainfall in the Maritime Continent (MC). The MC convection exerts a significant impact on the variation of HR events over EETP. Results from analyses of observations and numerical simulations indicate that the convective heating over the MC induces an anomalous anticyclone over southeastern China and the Ekman pumping effect and circulation-convection feedback play vital roles in the process. The high correlation between the HR events over EETP and the equatorial central Pacific SST depends on the relationship between the MC convection and the equatorial central Pacific SST. The relationship is asymmetric, and only the warm SST anomaly in the equatorial central Pacific is accompanied by fewer HR events over the EETP.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Prof. M. Watanabe for providing the linear baroclinic model and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which improved the overall quality of the paper. This study was jointly supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grants 2012CB417202, and 2014CB953900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 41375081, 91337107, 91337215, and 41105061), the Basic Research and Operation Program of the CMA Institute of Plateau Meteorology (BROP 201414).
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Jiang, X., Li, Y., Yang, S. et al. Interannual variation of mid-summer heavy rainfall in the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Clim Dyn 45, 3091–3102 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2526-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2526-0