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Two supercold waves straddling 2020 and 2021 successively hit China and caused record-breaking extremely low temperatures. In this study, the distinct features of these two supercold waves are analyzed on the medium-range time scale. The blocking pattern from the Kara Sea to Lake Baikal characterized the first cold wave, while the large-scale tilted ridge and trough over the Asian continent featured the second cold wave. Prior to the cold waves, both the northwest and hyperpolar paths of cold air contributed to a zonally extensive cold air accumulation in the key region of Siberia. This might be the primary reason why strong and extensive supercold waves occur even under the Arctic amplification background.

Concurrence of low temperature, precipitation and freezing weather in an extensive area would cause devastating impacts on local economy and society. We call such a combination of concurrent disastrous weather “extensive cold-precipitation-freezing” events (ECPFEs). In this study, the ECPFEs in southern China (15°–35°N, 102°–123°E) are objectively defined by using daily surface observational data for the period 1951–2013. An ECPFE in southern China is defined if the low temperature area, precipitation area and freezing area concurrently exceed their respective thresholds for at least three consecutive days. The identified ECPFEs are shown to be reasonable and reliable, compared with those in previous studies. The circulation anomalies in ECPFEs are characterized by a large-scale tilted ridge and trough pairing over mid- and high-latitude Eurasia, and the intensified subtropical westerlies along the southern foot of the Tibetan Plateau and the anomalous anticyclonic circulation over the subtropical western Pacific. Comparative analysis reveals that the stable cold air from the north and the warm and moist air from the south converge, facilitating a favorable environment for the concurrence of extensive low-temperature, precipitation and freezing weather.

Using rain-gauge-observation daily precipitation data from the Global Historical Climatology Network (V3.25) and the Chinese Surface Daily Climate Dataset (V3.0), this study investigates the fidelity of the AHPRODITE dataset in representing extreme precipitation, in terms of the extreme precipitation threshold value, occurrence number, probability of detection, and extremal dependence index during the cool (October to April) and warm (May to September) seasons in Central Asia during 1961–90. The distribution of extreme precipitation is characterized by large extreme precipitation threshold values and high occurrence numbers over the mountainous areas. The APHRODITE dataset is highly correlated with the gauge-observation precipitation data and can reproduce the spatial distributions of the extreme precipitation threshold value and total occurrence number. However, APHRODITE generally underestimates the extreme precipitation threshold values, while it overestimates the total numbers of extreme precipitation events, particularly over the mountainous areas. These biases can be attributed to the overestimation of light rainfall and the underestimation of heavy rainfall induced by the rainfall distribution-based interpolation. Such deficits are more evident for the warm season than the cool season, and thus the biases are more pronounced in the warm season than in the cool season. The probability of detection and extremal dependence index reveal that APHRODITE has a good capability of detecting extreme precipitation, particularly in the cool season.

Intense and extensive dust, caused by a strong Mongolian cyclone, hit Mongolia and northern China on 14–15 March 2021. In this study, the development process of this cyclone is analysed from the perspective of high-frequency eddy energetics. During the low-frequency circulation field of early March of 2021, an amplified polar vortex intruding towards central Asia and a ridge straddling eastern and northeastern Asia worked in concert to comprise a strong baroclinic zone from central Asia to Lake Baikal. Under these favourable conditions, on 13 March, a migratory trough triggered the Mongolian cyclone by crossing over the Sayan Mountains. The downwards transfer of kinetic energy from the eddy at 850 hPa played a key role in the intensification and mature stage of the cyclone. This mechanism was primarily completed by the cold air sinking behind the cold front. The frontal cyclone wave mechanism became crucial once the cyclone started to rapidly develop. The authors emphasize that the anomalously large growth of high-frequency available potential energy, which characterized this super strong cyclone, was obtained by extracting energy first from the time-mean available potential energy and then from the low-frequency available potential energy. The interannual temperature anomaly pattern of “north cold south warm” facilitated the additional time-mean available potential energy, and the temperature anomaly pattern of “northwest cold southeast warm” conditioned the extra low-frequency available potential energy. The analysis results suggest that the interaction between high- and low-frequency waves was also important in the development of the intense cyclone.

We investigated the differences between stratospheric (S-type) and tropospheric (T-type) Arctic Oscillation (AO) events on the intraseasonal time scale, in terms of their influences on surface air temperature (SAT) over the Northern Hemisphere and the dynamic features associated with their spatial structures. S-type AO events showed a stratosphere-troposphere coupled structure, while T-type events exhibited a stratosphere-troposphere uncoupled structure. The annular SAT anomalies over the Northern Hemisphere were found to be associated with S-type AO events, whereas such an annular feature was substantially destructed in T-type AO events. The different horizontal structures in the troposphere of the two types could mainly be attributed to transient eddy feedback forcing. As for the vertically uncoupled structure of Ttype events, the underlying dynamical features that differentiate them from S-type events lie in the vertical propagation of zonally confined Rossby waves. In T-type events, the zonally confined Rossby wave packets can emanate from the significant height anomalies over Northeast Asia, where one vertical waveguide exists, and then propagate upward into the stratosphere. In contrast, such a vertical propagation was not evident for S-type events. The stratospheric anomalies associated with the upward injection of the zonally confined Rossby waves from the troposphere in T-type events can further induce the anomalous vertical propagation of planetary waves (PWs) through the interference between the climatological-mean PWs and anomalous PWs, leading to the final stratosphere-troposphere uncoupled structure of T-type events.