Influence of December snow cover over North America on January surface air temperature over the midlatitude Asia

The impact of North American (NA) snow cover on the Northern Hemisphere climate has drawn increasing attention in recent years. This study reveals a negative relationship between NA snow cover in December and surface air temperature (SAT) over the midlatitude Asia in the following January. The results show that, in December, the extensive snow cover decreases SAT over NA via local diabatic cooling, which further intensifies the Atlantic jet stream by enlarging the meridional gradient of the 1,000‐ to 300‐hPa layer thickness, especially along 40°N. Meanwhile, we found negative sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the Western North Atlantic and enhanced transient eddy activity over the Eastern North Atlantic due to anomalous net energy conversion from the mean flow. In January, a zonally oriented dipole of transient eddy anomalies straddles the North Atlantic, with the negative–positive (west–east) anomaly centres attributing to local oceanic cooling and the persistence of the eddy–mean flow interaction, respectively. Such dipole of transient eddy activity in turn favours the downstream development of the Atlantic jet stream. Besides, the changes in surface turbulent heat flux over the North Atlantic trigger a Rossby wave train that propagates across Europe and towards the Far East. Coincident with the strengthened Siberian High and the accelerated East Asian jet stream in January, SAT decreases over the midlatitude Asia. Hence, our analysis indicates that December NA snow cover could potentially be exploited for subseasonal predictability over Asia.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  International Journal of Climatology

• Publication date

  2019-08-09

• Fields of study

  Geography, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1002/joc.6235
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation Modulates the Impacts of Arctic Sea Ice Decline

  2018cited by this paper
• Role of Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) in winter intraseasonal variability over Ural

  2018influential reference
• Enhanced Linkage between Eurasian Winter and Spring Dominant Modes of Atmospheric Interannual Variability since the Early 1990s

  2018cited by this paper
• Climate Impacts

  2017influential reference
• Modulation of the Aleutian–Icelandic low seesaw and its surface impacts by the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation

  2017cited by this paper
• Interdecadal Changes in the Relationship between Interannual Variations of Spring North Atlantic SST and Eurasian Surface Air Temperature

  2017cited by this paper
• The Influence of Snow Cover on Runoff Regime and Its Change

  2016cited by this paper
• Dominant Modes of Interannual Variability in Eurasian Surface Air Temperature during Boreal Spring

  2016cited by this paper
• Influence of the Eurasian snow on the negative North Atlantic Oscillation in subseasonal forecasts of the cold winter 2009/2010

  2016cited by this paper
• Regional change in snow water equivalent–surface air temperature relationship over Eurasia during boreal spring

  2016cited by this paper
• Using Causal Effect Networks to Analyze Different Arctic Drivers of Midlatitude Winter Circulation

  2016cited by this paper
• The Linkage between Upper-Level Jet Streams over East Asia and East Asian Winter Monsoon Variability

  2015cited by this paper
• Arctic moisture source for Eurasian snow cover variations in autumn

  2015cited by this paper
• A long-term Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent data record for climate studies and monitoring

  2015influential reference
• Quantifying synoptic eddy feedback onto the low‐frequency flow associated with anomalous temperature events in January over China

  2015cited by this paper
• Autumn Eurasian snow depth, autumn Arctic sea ice cover and East Asian winter monsoon

  2014cited by this paper
• Circulation Response to Eurasian versus North American Anomalous Snow Scenarios in the Northern Hemisphere with an AGCM Coupled to a Slab Ocean Model

  2013cited by this paper
• Warm Arctic, Cold Continents: A Common Pattern Related to Arctic Sea Ice Melt, Snow Advance, and Extreme Winter Weather

  2013cited by this paper
• Impact of declining Arctic sea ice on winter snowfall

  2012cited by this paper
• Arctic warming, increasing snow cover and widespread boreal winter cooling

  2012influential reference
• Investigating the Linear and Nonlinear Stationary Wave Response to Anomalous North American Snow Cover

  2011cited by this paper
• Seasonal Variations of the Synoptic-Scale Transient Eddy Activity and Polar Front Jet over East Asia

  2010cited by this paper
• Modeled Climate State and Dynamic Responses to Anomalous North American Snow Cover

  2010cited by this paper
• Circulation response to North American versus Eurasian anomalous snow scenarios in the Northern Hemisphere with an AGCM coupled to a slab ocean model

  2010cited by this paper
• Chapter 4 Storm Track Dynamics

  2008cited by this paper
• The dynamical response to snow cover perturbations in a large ensemble of atmospheric GCM integrations.

  2008cited by this paper
• Stratosphere-troposphere coupling and links with eurasian land surface variability

  2007cited by this paper
• Northern Hemisphere winter climate variability: Response to North American snow cover anomalies and orography

  2007influential reference
• Climate impacts of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation

  2006influential reference
• An introduction to dynamic meteorology

  2004cited by this paper
• Orographic Constraints on a Modeled Siberian Snow–Tropospheric–Stratospheric Teleconnection Pathway

  2004cited by this paper
• Relative impacts of Siberian and North American snow anomalies on the winter Arctic Oscillation

  2003influential reference
• Modeled Northern Hemisphere Winter Climate Response to Realistic Siberian Snow Anomalies

  2003influential reference
• A Large-Ensemble Model Study of the Wintertime AO–NAO and the Role of Interannual Snow Perturbations

  2002cited by this paper
• The Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) for estimation of turbulent heat fluxes

  2002cited by this paper
• A discussion on the boundary and area of the Tibetan Plateau in China

  2002cited by this paper
• 극 진동(Arctic Oscillation)

  2002cited by this paper
• The Surface Energy Balance System ( SEBS ) for estimation of turbulent heat fluxes

  2002cited by this paper
• East Asian Winter Monsoon and Arctic Oscillation

  2001cited by this paper
• A Formulation of a Phase-Independent Wave-Activity Flux for Stationary and Migratory Quasigeostrophic Eddies on a Zonally Varying Basic Flow

  2001cited by this paper
• The influence of snow cover on northern hemisphere climate variability

  2001cited by this paper
• Discussion by

  2000cited by this paper
• A North Atlantic Climate Pacemaker for the Centuries

  2000cited by this paper
• Eurasian snow cover variability and northern hemisphere climate predictability

  1999cited by this paper
• The Arctic oscillation signature in the wintertime geopotential height and temperature fields

  1998cited by this paper
• Sensitivity of the Asian summer monsoon to an anomalous Eurasian snow cover within the Météo-France GCM

  1996influential reference
• The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project

  1996influential reference
• Organization of storm track anomalies by recurring low-frequency circulation anomalies

  1995cited by this paper
• Global Atmospheric Circulations: Observations and Theories

  1993cited by this paper
• Local and Remote Responses to Excessive Snow Mass over Eurasia Appearing in the Northern Spring and Summer Climate A Study with the MRI * GCM

  1991influential reference
• Variability of the Baroclinic and Barotropic Transient Eddy Forcing Associated with Monthly Changes in the Midlatitude Storm Tracks

  1991cited by this paper
• On the Three-Dimensional Propagation of Stationary Waves

  1985cited by this paper
• Statistical Local Effect of Synoptic-Scale Transient Eddies on the Time-Mean Flow in the Northern Extratropics in Winter

  1984cited by this paper

• Interannual snowfall variations in Central Asia and their association with ENSO and stratospheric polar vortex during winter

  2023cites this paper
• Review of snow phenology variation in the Northern Hemisphere and its relationship with climate and vegetation

  2022cites this paper