Increased Quasi Stationarity and Persistence of Winter Ural Blocking and Eurasian Extreme Cold Events in Response to Arctic Warming. Part I: Insights from Observational Analyses

Yao Yao; Dehai Luo; Aiguo Dai; Ian Simmonds

Journal article

Increased Quasi Stationarity and Persistence of Winter Ural Blocking and Eurasian Extreme Cold Events in Response to Arctic Warming. Part I: Insights from Observational Analyses

Yao Yao, Dehai Luo, Aiguo Dai, Ian Simmonds

JOURNAL OF CLIMATE | AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC | Published : 2017

DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0261.1

Abstract

Part I of this study examines the relationship among winter cold anomalies over Eurasia, Ural blocking (UB), and the background conditions associated with Arctic warming over the Barents and Kara Seas (BKS) using reanalysis data. It is found that the intensity, persistence, and occurrence region of UB-related Eurasian cold anomalies depend strongly on the strength and vertical shear (VS) of the mean westerly wind (MWW) over mid-high-latitude Eurasia related to BKS warming. Observational analysis reveals that during 1951-2015 UB days are 64% (54%) more frequent during weak MWW (VS) winters, with 26.9 (28.4) days per winter, than during strong MWW (VS) winters. During weak MWW or VS winters, a..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Ian Simmonds Author Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Related Projects (1)

Trends in polar sea ice and associated global atmospheric circulations

The project aims to analyse the trends in sea ice extent over the polar regions, and explain them in terms of changes in the local and remot..

Grants

Awarded by National Key Research And Development Program of China

Awarded by National Natural Science Foundation of China

Awarded by U. S. National Science Foundation

Awarded by U.S.Department of Energy's Office of Science

Awarded by U.S.National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Awarded by Div Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences

Funding Acknowledgements

The first two authors acknowledge the support from the National Key Research And Development Program of China (2016YFA0601802) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 41505075, 41430533, and 41375067). A.Dai is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant AGS-1353740), the U.S.Department of Energy's Office of Science (Award DE-SC0012602), and the U.S.National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Award NA15OAR4310086). I.Simmonds was supported by Australian Research Council Grant DP 160101997. The authors thank three anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions in improving this paper.