Interannual Variations of the First Rainy Season Precipitation over South China

Abstract

The first rainy season (FRS), also known as the presummer rainy season, is the first standing stage of the East Asian summer monsoon when over 40% of the annual precipitation is received over South China. Based on the start and end dates of the FRS defined by the China Meteorological Administration, this study investigates the interannual variations of the FRS precipitation over South China and its mechanism with daily mean data. The length and start/end date of the FRS vary year to year, and the average length of the FRS is 90 days, spanning from 6 April to 4 July. Composite analyses reveal that the years with abundant FRS precipitation over South China feature weakened anticyclonic wind shear over the Indochina Peninsula in the upper troposphere, southwestward shift of the western Pacific subtropical high, and anticyclonic wind anomalies over the South China Sea in the lower troposphere. The lower-tropospheric southwesterly wind anomalies are especially important because they help to enhance warm advection and water vapor transport toward South China, increase the lower tropospheric convective instability, and shape the pattern of the anomalous ascent over South China. It is further proposed that a local positive feedback between circulation and precipitation exists in this process. The variability of the FRS precipitation can be well explained by a zonal sea surface temperature (SST) dipole in the tropical Pacific and the associated Matsuno–Gill-type Rossby wave response over the western North Pacific. The interannual variability of both the SST dipole and the FRS precipitation over South China is weakened after the year 2000.