A Comparative Study on Precipitation Climatology and Interannual Variability in the Lower Midlatitude East Asia and Central Asia

Abstract

Abstract This study examines precipitation climatology and interannual variability in two regions in the lower midlatitude Asia to the east and west of the Tibetan Plateau, one located in monsoonal East Asia (the M region) and the other in semiarid central Asia (the W region). The focus is on the 5-month summer half year (May–September) for the M region and the winter half year (December–April) for the W region, corresponding to their respective rainy seasons. The main mechanism of moisture transport for the M region is the summer lower-tropospheric southerly winds, whereas the winter midtropospheric westerly circulation between 25° and 45°N is responsible for conducting moisture fluxes to the W region. It is further discovered that the winter precipitation series are positively correlated between the two regions (r = 0.47). There is also a weak cross-seasonal correlation between the winter W region precipitation and summer M region precipitation (r = 0.27). Winter westerly circulation over the W region is influenced by both the east Atlantic–western Russia and the polar–Eurasia extratropical teleconnection patterns, while El Niño–Southern Oscillation influences regional circulation patterns in both regions through teleconnections via the Indo-Pacific warm pool convection in winter and its lagged impact on the western North Pacific anticyclone over the Philippine Sea. In the meantime, responses of the regional winter circulation in the M region to the upstream westerly circulation intensity cause the correlation in winter precipitation between the two regions. Such linkages form the basis of the concurrent and cross-seasonal correlations in precipitation between the two remote regions.