Decadal Change of Meiyu Onset over Yangtze River and Its Causes

Abstract

Meiyu onset marks the beginning of the rainfall season in the densely populated Yangtze River Basin, whether the Meiyu initiates early or late in June, and thus has a profound effect on the several hundred million people living there. Applying a Bayesian change-point analysis to data from 1960–2014, we objectively detected an abrupt change of Meiyu onset around 2002. The Meiyu onset date averaged over 2002–2014 was 19 June, delayed by about two weeks compared to that of 1989–2001 (6 June). This decadal change is attributable to the distinct amplitude of moisture transport toward the Yangtze River Basin induced by the changes in climatological intraseasonal oscillation (CISO). The CISO emerges as the annual cycle interacts with the transient intraseasonal perturbations. The wet/dry phases of the CISO are consistent with the climatological active/break stages of the East Asian summer monsoon. In early June, the northwestward-propagating CISO convective/cyclonic anomalies over the western North Pacific (WNP) show weaker amplitude during the earlier-onset epoch compared to the delayed-onset epoch. Thus, relative to the delayed onset epoch, a quasi-barotropic anticyclonic CISO anomaly appears over the WNP in early June during the earlier-onset years. This anticyclonic anomaly was conducive to the westward extension of the WNP subtropical high, conveying warm, moist air from the tropics toward the Yangtze River Basin for the rainy season onset. Model experiments suggest that the decadal changes in WNP CISO intensity were associated with the epochal changes in large-scale background circulation and sea surface temperature over the WNP.