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Influence of ENSO on frequency of wintertime fog days in Eastern China

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Abstract

The influence of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on wintertime fog days in eastern China was investigated through the analysis of fog station data in China and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction reanalysis data during the period of 1954–2007. A composite analysis shows distinctive anomaly patterns of fog days in early and late winter during ENSO. More frequent fogs appear in Central and North China (around 30°–40°N) in November–December (ND), while more frequent fogs occur over Middle Reach of Yangtze River (27°–32°N) and less frequent fogs appear over 32°–40°N in January–February (JF) during El Niño. The cause of this distinctive sub-seasonal evolution feature is discussed as the following. Actually we analyzed all meteorological fields during El Niño and La Niña, and found that they are approximately in a mirror image. To reduce the number of figures, we presented the difference fields in most of cases. We found that anomalous southwesterlies associated with El Niño penetrate into North China (up to 40°N) in ND. The northward moisture transport leads to near-surface air saturation over the region. Moreover, atmosphere becomes convectively unstable in South China (20°–30°N), which leads to a positive precipitation anomaly there. The local convergence leads to an anomalous divergence and subsidence north of 30°N. Both the saturated air and stable stratification lead to more frequent fog days in 30°–40°N. Compared to ND, anomalous southwesterly flow in JF is weaker, and can only transport moisture up to Central China (near 30°N). As maximum precipitation anomaly is confined near the southeastern coast of China, anomalous divergence and subsidence appear north of 27°N. This stable stratification together with the anomalous moisture transport causes the increase of fog over Central China but decrease of fog in North China (33°–38°N) due to the subsidence induced dryness.

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Acknowledgements

This work is jointly supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant 41630423, China National Key R&D Program 2015CB453201 and 2016YFA0600402, National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants 41875069, 41605045, 41405068, 41775134 and 41505118, NSF grant AGS-1565653, and the priority academic program development of Jiangsu Higher Education institutions (PAPD). This is SOEST contribution number 10454, IPRC contribution number 1343 and ESMC number 236.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster, Ministry of Education (KLME)/Joint International Research Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Change (ILCEC)/Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters (CIC-FEMD), Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, China

    Huaying Yu, Tim Li & Peng Liu

  2. Department of Atmospheric Sciences and International Pacific Research Center, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Huaying Yu, Tim Li & Peng Liu

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  1. Huaying Yu
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  2. Tim Li
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Correspondence to Tim Li.

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Yu, H., Li, T. & Liu, P. Influence of ENSO on frequency of wintertime fog days in Eastern China. Clim Dyn 52, 5099–5113 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-018-4437-3

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