On the Successiveness of the Two Extreme Cold Events in China during the 2020/21 Winter According to Cold Air Trajectories

Abstract

Two extreme cold air events successively hit China during 28–31 December 2020 (the late 2020 event) and during 6–8 January 2021 (the early 2021 event), which caused great losses. These two events have received extensive attention in relation to synoptic weather systems and remote forcing. Although it has been noted that a near-surface cool condition can greatly impact tropospheric circulation, its role in the successiveness of two such extreme cold waves remains unclear. This study focused on cold air pathways from the Lagrangian perspective, and explored the potential influence of cold air over the key region in terms of connecting the two cold events using a piecewise potential vorticity inversion. With the obtained results, three cold air sources with three corresponding air routes were identified in the two cold events. The northern pathway dominated the late 2020 event, in which the cold air intruded from the eastern Laptev Sea and moved southward to China. In contrast, the early 2021 event was mainly associated with the northwestern pathway in which the cold air came from the Ural Mountains and moved clockwise. Notably, cold air traveling along the western route from western Lake Balkhash arrived at the north of the Tianshan Mountains earlier and amplified the positive height anomaly in situ. Moreover, such an enhanced positive height anomaly moved the direction of the cold air from the northern and northwestern routes southward and thus played a key role in the successiveness of the two extreme cold events.