Impacts of the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean Warm Pools on Wildfires in Yunnan, Southwest China: Spatial Patterns With Interannual and Intraannual Variations

Abstract

AbstractThe Indo‐Pacific warm pool affects the regional climatic conditions in Southeast Asia mediated by the Western Pacific (WP) and Indian Ocean (IO) monsoons, which are recognized as critical regulators of wildfires in this region. Our study explored the spatiotemporal effects of the warm pools on wildfire records in Yunnan, Southwest China. We showed the interannual records had a negative relationship with the simultaneous WP warm pool area index. The Ailao Mountains in the central Yunnan could be a geographical barrier that blocked the influences of the WP warm pool from the east side. For the intraannual changes, the wildfire number variations had a stronger connection to the IO warm pool dynamics than the WP. Our study provided the novel evidence on the teleconnection between the Indo‐Pacific warm pool dynamics and regional environmental processes in Yunnan, also indicating this area as a part of the transitional zone between the two warm pools.