Effects of the Upstream Temperature Anomaly on Freezing Rain and Snowstorms over Southern China in Early 2008

By using ERA-Interim data, the temperature anomaly of the freezing rain and snowstorm event that occurred from 11 to 22 January 2008 in southern China was analyzed. During this period, diabatic heating and temperature advection caused the temperature to increase anomalously over the Tibetan Plateau. The anomalously high temperature moving from the Tibetan Plateau to southern China played several roles. First, the upper-level subtropical jet over China was split into two parts in the north-south direction, which affected the development of freezing rain in southern China; second, a ridge formed because of the warmer air moving to China, which hindered the transport of cold air from its upstream blocking high, forced the cold air to gather behind the ridge, and facilitated the severe cold air outbreak in the later period of the event; third, an inversion layer formed because of the lower-level cold air and upper-level warmer air over southern China, which was conducive to the development of the event over southern China; and finally, because of the temperature anomaly, opposite wind directions appeared at the lower levels (below 700 hPa), which helped transport of warm-moist and cold-dry air to the event area.