The impacts of East Siberian blocking on the development of the JPCZ

Abstract

Ensemble dynamical downscaling experiments were performed to investigate the influence of East Siberian blocking on a heavy snowfall event that occurred over Fukui City, Japan, in early February 2018 and was associated with the development of the Japan Sea Polar airmass Convergence Zone (JPCZ). The downscaling experiments simulated the enhancement of the East Asian cold air stream and its flow along two routes: the western route, which runs from the Eurasian Continent via the Yellow Sea and the Korean Peninsula; and the northern route, which originates in the Sea of Okhotsk and runs via the northern Japan Sea. As a result, the location and strength of the simulated JPCZ in the downscaling experiments are consistent with those in the Japanese regional reanalysis dataset. For the sensitivity experiments, the blocking that develops over East Siberia just prior to the formation of the JPCZ was removed, and the results indicate that the East Siberian blocking contributes significantly to JPCZ development by enhancing the East Asian cold air stream along the western route. Additional data analyses based on the 20-year reanalysis revealed that East Siberian blocking can enhance both the western and northern routes of the cold air streams.