Relationship between persistent heavy rain events in the Huaihe River valley and the distribution pattern of convective activities in the tropical western Pacific warm pool

Abstract

Using daily outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR) data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Center for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis data of geopotential height fields for 1979–2006, the relationship between persistent heavy rain events (PHREs) in the Huaihe River valley (HRV) and the distribution pattern of convective activity in the tropical western Pacific warm pool (WPWP) is investigated. Based on nine cases of PHREs in the HRV, common characteristics of the West Pacific subtropical high (WPSH) show that the northern edge of the WPSH continues to lie in the HRV and is associated with the persistent “north weak south strong” distribution pattern of convective activities in the WPWP. Composite analysis of OLR leading the circulation indicates that the response of the WPSH to OLR anomaly patterns lags by about 1–2 days. In order to explain the reason for the effects of the distribution pattern of convective activities in the WPWP on the persistent northern edge of the WPSH in the HRV, four typical persistent heavy and light rain events in the Yangtze River valley (YRV) are contrasted with the PHREs in the HRV. The comparison indicates that when the distribution pattern of the convective activities anomaly behaves in a weak (strong) manner across the whole WPWP, persistent heavy (light) rain tends to occur in the YRV. When the distribution pattern of the convective activities anomaly behaves according to the “north weak south strong” pattern in the WPWP, persistent heavy rain tends to occur in the HRV. The effects of the “north weak south strong” distribution pattern of convective activities on PHREs in the HRV are not obvious over the seasonal mean timescale, perhaps due to the non-extreme status of convective activities in the WPWP.