Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Impact of winter blocking on surface air temperature in East Asia: Ural versus Okhotsk blocking

  • Published:
Climate Dynamics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Atmospheric blockings and their impacts on wintertime surface air temperature in East Asia are investigated by using three blocking indices. Blockings in two specific regions that indirectly or directly modulate East Asian climate variability are analyzed: Ural (UR) blocking over East Asia’s northwest and Okhotsk (OK) blocking over East Asia’s northeast. Both lead to cold anomalies in East Asia but through slightly different mechanisms. In the typical case of UR blocking, cold air associated with a mid-level trough develops to the east of the quasi-stationary blocking and slowly moves southeastward as the Siberian high intensifies. Four days after the blocking onset, East Asia experiences significant cooling due to the temperature advection associated with anomalous temperature gradient and adiabatic cooling. During the typical OK blocking event, a preexisting cold anomaly over northern Eurasia is pushed southeastward by the westward expansion of the blocking. The anomalous meridional flow due to blocking-induced dipolar circulation over the North Pacific further reinforces the cold advection over East Asia, with a minor contribution of vertical processes. In both types of blocking, the cold anomaly persists even in the decaying phase, due to an offset between the temperature advection and the diabatic heating.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The JRA-55 (Japanese 55-year Reanalysis) data is obtained from the Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS) server (http://search.diasjp.net/en/dataset/JRA55).

Notes

  1. Note that the sign of \(Gr({i}^{*})\) in Eq. (3) of Dunn-Sigouin et al. (2013) should be positive.

References

  • Barnes EA, Dunn-Sigouin E, Masato G, Woollings T (2014) Exploring recent trends in Northern Hemisphere blocking. Geophys Res Lett 41(2):638–644

    Google Scholar 

  • Barriopedro D, García-Herrera R, Lupo AR, Hernández E (2006) A climatology of Northern Hemisphere blocking. J Clim 19(6):1042–1063

    Google Scholar 

  • Barriopedro D, García-Herrera R, Trigo RM (2010) Application of blocking diagnosis methods to general circulation models. Part I: a novel detection scheme. Clim dyn 35(7–8):1373–1391

    Google Scholar 

  • Brunner L, Schaller N, Anstey J, Sillmann J, Steiner AK (2018) Dependence of present and future European temperature extremes on the location of atmospheric blocking. Geophys Res Lett 45(12):6311–6320

    Google Scholar 

  • Chan PW, Hassanzadeh P, Kuang Z (2019) Evaluating indices of blocking anticyclones in terms of their linear relations with surface hot extremes. Geophys Res Lett 46(9):4904–4912

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen X, Luo D, Feldstein SB, Lee S (2018) Impact of winter Ural blocking on Arctic sea ice: short-time variability. J Clim 31(6):2267–2282

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheung HN, Zhou W, Shao Y, Chen W, Mok HY, Wu MC (2013) Observational climatology and characteristics of wintertime atmospheric blocking over Ural-Siberia. Clim Dyn 41(1):63–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Davini P, Cagnazzo C, Gualdi S, Navarra A (2012) Bidimensional diagnostics, variability, and trends of Northern Hemisphere blocking. J Clim 25(19):6496–6509

    Google Scholar 

  • Doblas-Reyes FJ, Casado MJ, Pastor MA (2002) Sensitivity of the Northern hemisphere blocking frequency to the detection index. J Geophys Res Atmos 107(D2):5–6

    Google Scholar 

  • Dole RM, Gordon ND (1983) Persistent anomalies of the extratropical Northern Hemisphere wintertime circulation: geographical distribution and regional persistence characteristics. Mon Weather Rev 111(8):1567–1586

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunn-Sigouin E, Son SW, Lin H (2013) Evaluation of Northern Hemisphere blocking climatology in the global environment multiscale model. Mon Weather Rev 141(2):707–727

    Google Scholar 

  • García-Herrera R, Garrido-Perez JM, Barriopedro D, Ordóñez C, Vicente-Serrano SM, Nieto R, Yiou P (2019) The European 2016/17 drought. J Clim 32(11):3169–3187

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrido-Perez JM, Ordóñez C, Garcia-Herrera R (2017) Strong signatures of high-latitude blocks and subtropical ridges in winter PM10 over Europe. Atmos Environ 167:49–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanna E, Cropper TE, Hall RJ, Cappelen J (2016) Greenland Blocking Index 1851–2015: a regional climate change signal. Int J Climatol 36(15):4847–4861

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen AR, Sutera A (1993) A comparison between planetary-wave flow regimes and blocking. Tellus A Dyn Meteorol Oceanogr 45(4):281–288

    Google Scholar 

  • Hong CC, Hsu HH, Lin NH, Chiu H (2011) Roles of European blocking and tropical-extratropical interaction in the 2010 Pakistan flooding. Geophys Res Lett. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL047583

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hsu HH (1987) Propagation of low-level circulation features in the vicinity of mountain ranges. Mon Weather Rev 115(9):1864–1893

    Google Scholar 

  • Hwang J, Martineau P, Son SW, Miyasaka T, Nakamura H (2020) The role of transient Eddies in North Pacific blocking formation and its seasonality. J Atmos Sci 77(7):2453–2470

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeong DI, Yu B, Cannon AJ (2021) Links between atmospheric blocking and North American winter cold spells in two generations of Canadian Earth System Model large ensembles. Clim Dyn. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-05801-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joung CH, Hitchman MH (1982) On the role of successive downstream development in East Asian polar air outbreaks. Mon Weather Rev 110(9):1224–1237

    Google Scholar 

  • Jury MW, Herrera-García S, Gutiérrez JM, Barriopedro D (2019) Blocking representation in the ERA-Interim driven EURO-CORDEX RCMs. Clim Dyn 52(5):3291–3306

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim SH, Kim BM (2019) In search of winter blocking in the western North Pacific Ocean. Geophys Res Lett 46(15):9271–9280

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim KY, Son SW (2016) Physical characteristics of Eurasian winter temperature variability. Environ Res Lett 11(4):044009

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim HJ, Son SW (2020) Eurasian winter temperature change in recent decades and its association with Arctic sea ice loss. Polar Res. https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v39.3363

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim HJ, Son SW, Moon W, Kug JS, Hwang J (2021) Subseasonal relationship between Arctic and Eurasian surface air temperature. Sci Rep 11(1):1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Kobayashi S, Ota Y, Harada Y, Ebita A, Moriya M, Onoda H, Takahashi K (2015) The JRA-55 reanalysis: general specifications and basic characteristics. J Meteorol Soc Jpn Ser II 93(1):5–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Kushnir Y (1987) Retrograding wintertime low-frequency disturbances over the North Pacific Ocean. J Atmos Sci 44(19):2727–2742

    Google Scholar 

  • Lau WK, Kim KM (2012) The 2010 Pakistan flood and Russian heat wave: teleconnection of hydrometeorological extremes. J Hydrometeorol 13(1):392–403

    Google Scholar 

  • Luo D, Xiao Y, Yao Y, Dai A, Simmonds I, Franzke CL (2016) Impact of Ural blocking on winter warm Arctic–cold Eurasian anomalies. Part I: blocking-induced amplification. J Clim 29(11):3925–3947

    Google Scholar 

  • Lupo AR, Smith PJ (1995) Climatological features of blocking anticyclones in the Northern Hemisphere. Tellus A 47(4):439–456

    Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald GM (2007) Severe and sustained drought in southern California and the West: present conditions and insights from the past on causes and impacts. Quatern Int 173:87–100

    Google Scholar 

  • Maddison JW, Abalos M, Barriopedro D, García-Herrera R, Garrido-Perez JM, Ordóñez C (2021) Linking air stagnation in Europe with the synoptic-to large-scale atmospheric circulation. Weathe Clim Dyn 2(3):675–694. https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-675-2021

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martineau P, Chen G, Burrows DA (2017) Wave events: climatology, trends, and relationship to Northern Hemisphere winter blocking and weather extremes. J Clim 30(15):5675–5697

    Google Scholar 

  • Masato G, Hoskins BJ, Woollings TJ (2012) Wave-breaking characteristics of midlatitude blocking. Q J R Meteorol Soc 138(666):1285–1296

    Google Scholar 

  • Masato G, Woollings T, Hoskins BJ (2014) Structure and impact of atmospheric blocking over the Euro-Atlantic region in present-day and future simulations. Geophys Res Lett 41(3):1051–1058

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsueda M (2011) Predictability of Euro-Russian blocking in summer of 2010. Geophys Res Lett. https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL046557

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller RL, Lackmann GM, Robinson WA (2020) A new variable-threshold persistent anomaly index: Northern Hemisphere anomalies in the ERA-interim reanalysis. Mon Weather Rev 148(1):43–62

    Google Scholar 

  • Mori M, Watanabe M, Shiogama H, Inoue J, Kimoto M (2014) Robust Arctic sea-ice influence on the frequent Eurasian cold winters in past decades. Nat Geosci 7(12):869–873

    Google Scholar 

  • Nakamura N, Huang CS (2018) Atmospheric blocking as a traffic jam in the jet stream. Science 361(6397):42–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Ordóñez C, Barriopedro D, García-Herrera R, Sousa PM, Schnell JL (2017) Regional responses of surface ozone in Europe to the location of high-latitude blocks and subtropical ridges. Atmos Chem Phys 17(4):3111–3131

    Google Scholar 

  • Park TW, Ho CH, Yang S (2011) Relationship between the Arctic Oscillation and cold surges over East Asia. J Clim 24(1):68–83

    Google Scholar 

  • Park TW, Ho CH, Deng Y (2014) A synoptic and dynamical characterization of wave-train and blocking cold surge over East Asia. Clim Dyn 43(3–4):753–770

    Google Scholar 

  • Pfahl S, Wernli H (2012) Quantifying the relevance of atmospheric blocking for co-located temperature extremes in the Northern Hemispherere on (sub-) daily time scales. Geophys Res Lett. https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052261

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scherrer SC, Croci-Maspoli M, Schwierz C, Appenzeller C (2006) Two-dimensional indices of atmospheric blocking and their statistical relationship with winter climate patterns in the Euro-Atlantic region. Int J Climatol 26(2):233–249

    Google Scholar 

  • Shi N, Tian P, Wang Y, Wang X (2020) Contrasting relationship between wintertime blocking highs over Europe-Siberia and temperature anomalies in the Yangtze River Basin. Mon Weather Rev 148(7):2953–2970

    Google Scholar 

  • Song L, Wu R (2021) Two types of Rossby wave breaking events and their influences on East Asian winter temperature. J Geophys Res Atmos. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JD033917

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Song L, Wang L, Chen W, Zhang Y (2016) Intraseasonal variation of the strength of the East Asian trough and its climatic impacts in boreal winter. J Clim 29(7):2557–2577

    Google Scholar 

  • Sousa PM, Trigo RM, Barriopedro D, Soares PM, Ramos AM, Liberato ML (2017) Responses of European precipitation distributions and regimes to different blocking locations. Clim Dyn 48(3):1141–1160

    Google Scholar 

  • Sousa PM, Trigo RM, Barriopedro D, Soares PM, Santos JA (2018) European temperature responses to blocking and ridge regional patterns. Clim Dyn 50(1):457–477

    Google Scholar 

  • Sousa PM, Barriopedro D, García-Herrera R, Woollings T, Trigo RM (2021) A new combined detection algorithm for blocking and subtropical ridges. J Clim 34(18):7735–7758

    Google Scholar 

  • Sung MK, Son SW, Yoo C, Hwang J, An SI (2021) Seesawing of winter temperature extremes between East Asia and North America. J Clim 34(11):4423–4434

    Google Scholar 

  • Takaya K, Nakamura H (2005a) Mechanisms of intraseasonal amplification of the cold Siberian high. J Atmos Sci 62(12):4423–4440

    Google Scholar 

  • Takaya K, Nakamura H (2005b) Geographical dependence of upper-level blocking formation associated with intraseasonal amplification of the Siberian high. J Atmos Sci 62(12):4441–4449

    Google Scholar 

  • Tibaldi S, Molteni F (1990) On the operational predictability of blocking. Tellus A 42(3):343–365

    Google Scholar 

  • Tibaldi S, Tosi E, Navarra A, Pedulli L (1994) Northern and Southern Hemisphere seasonal variability of blocking frequency and predictability. Mon Weather Rev 122(9):1971–2003

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyrlis E, Hoskins BJ (2008) Aspects of a Northern Hemisphere atmospheric blocking climatology. J Atmos Sci 65(5):1638–1652

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyrlis E, Bader J, Manzini E, Ukita J, Nakamura H, Matei D (2020) On the role of Ural blocking in driving the Warm Arctic-Cold Siberia pattern. Q J R Meteorol Soc 146(730):2138–2153

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyrlis E, Bader J, Manzini E, Matei D (2021) Reconciling different methods of high-latitude blocking detection. Q J R Meteorol Soc 147(735):1070–1096

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang L, Chen W, Zhou W, Chan JC, Barriopedro D, Huang R (2010) Effect of the climate shift around mid 1970s on the relationship between wintertime Ural blocking circulation and East Asian climate. Int J Climatol 30(1):153–158

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiedenmann JM, Lupo AR, Mokhov II, Tikhonova EA (2002) The climatology of blocking anticyclones for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres: block intensity as a diagnostic. J Clim 15(23):3459–3473

    Google Scholar 

  • Woollings T, Barriopedro D, Methven J, Son SW, Martius O, Harvey B, Seneviratne S (2018) Blocking and its response to climate change. Curr Clim Change Rep 4(3):287–300

    Google Scholar 

  • Yao Y, Luo D, Dai A, Simmonds I (2017) Increased quasi stationarity and persistence of winter Ural blocking and Eurasian extreme cold events in response to Arctic warming Part I: insights from observational analyses. J Clim 30(10):3549–3568

    Google Scholar 

  • Yihui D (1990) Build-up, air mass transformation and propagation of Siberian high and its relations to cold surge in East Asia. Meteorol Atmos Phys 44(1):281–292

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoo YE, Son SW, Lee JH, Min SK (2019) Abrupt decrease of wintertime cold nights in Korea in the late 1980s. Asia-Pac J Atmos Sci 55(1):31–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Yun SG, Yoo C (2019) The effects of spring and winter blocking on PM10 concentration in Korea. Atmosphere 10(7):410

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

Jaeyoung Hwang and Seok-Woo Son were supported by the R&D Program for Oceans and Polar Regions of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (NRF-2020M1A5A1110579). Patrick Martineau was supported in part by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research JP19H05702 (on Innovative Areas 6102). David Barriopedro was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the JeDiS (RTI2018-096402-B-I00) project. The authors are grateful to two anonymous reviewers, who provided constructive comments and helped improve the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea

    Jaeyoung Hwang & Seok-Woo Son

  2. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama, Japan

    Patrick Martineau

  3. Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Patrick Martineau

  4. Instituto de Geociencias, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Complutense de Madrid (CSIC-UCM), Madrid, Spain

    David Barriopedro

Authors
  1. Jaeyoung Hwang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Seok-Woo Son
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Patrick Martineau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. David Barriopedro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seok-Woo Son.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 2724 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hwang, J., Son, SW., Martineau, P. et al. Impact of winter blocking on surface air temperature in East Asia: Ural versus Okhotsk blocking. Clim Dyn 59, 2197–2212 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06204-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06204-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation