Abstract The formation mechanisms of both the South Pacific convergence zone (SPCZ) and the baiu front are investigated using a regional climate model. Some idealistic numerical experiments are carried out assuming zonally uniform and temporally constant atmospheric fields obtained from ECMWF analysis data as initial and lateral boundary conditions. A rainfall zone similar to the SPCZ is reproduced using a zonal mean atmospheric field of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) summer. The simulated SPCZ in the idealized model framework is highly sensitive to the variation of SST during 1997–98 in a manner similar to observation. The SPCZ is extremely weak in an experiment under the zonal mean field of the Northern Hemisphere (NH) early summer. Experiments with a different intensity of zonal wind speed and baroclinicity suggest that a mild zonal wind (weak baroclinicity) weakens the precipitation of the SPCZ and even occasionally suppresses precipitation when it is too weak. The heat contrast between the Australian c...