Analysis on the Disastrous Weather of Serious Drought in Northwest Hunan in Summer and Autumn of 2009

[Objective] The research aimed to analyze the disastrous weather of serious drought in Northwest Hunan in summer and autumn of 2009.[Method] According to the meteorological data in Zhangjiajie of Northwest Hunan during the drought period from June to September,2009,the disaster characteristics of continuous drought in summer and autumn were analyzed.Based on NCEP/NCAR 2.5°×2.5° reanalysis data,by using the climatic diagnostic method,the formation reason of serious drought was initially analyzed from the circulation characteristics in the middle and high latitudes,Western Pacific subtropical high,the abnormal characteristics of sea surface temperature in the equatorial Middle Eastern Pacific Ocean and the tropical system activity.[Result] The characteristics of serious drought in Northwest Hunan in summer and autumn of 2009 were the quick developed speed,wide influence range,long duration,big disaster loss and long high temperature time.The influence range,duration and harm degree were rare to see in the history.During the arid period(June-September),the atmospheric circulation was abnormal.The polar vortex in the northern hemisphere was weak,and the center was by north.It was two-trough-one-ridge type in the middle and high latitudes of Eurasia.The long-wave trough existed respectively near Balkhash Lake and from Sea of Okhotsk to the east coast in China.The long-wave ridge maintained from Lake Baikal to Central Asia and stabilized in 90°-110° E of Central Asia.From the middle dekad of June to the middle dekad of September,the westerly index increased.The zonal circulation was the main one in the middle and high latitudes of Eurasia.The cold air in the high-latitude frontal zone spread eastward with the small-amplitude fluctuation form along the latitude circle direction,and was difficult to pass the westerly barrier near 45° N to reach the low latitude.Meanwhile,Western Pacific subtropical high jumped northward to control Jiangnan and South China for a long time.The down airflow was prevalent.It was hot and rainless.The drought developed quickly.The sea surface temperature in the equatorial Middle Eastern Pacific Ocean started to rise in June,and it entered into El Nino state.When El Nino event of obvious temperature increasing started to appear in spring and summer,the plum rain amount was less in the middle and low reaches of Yangtze River in the year or next year.The probability was 80%.In El Nino year,the typhoon was less.In addition,for the influence of strong Western Pacific subtropical high,the landing pathway of typhoon was by east or south.The kind of typhoon had the small role for easing the drought in Northwest Hunan.[Conclusion] The research provided the theory basis for improving the prediction level of short-term climate and the understanding of extreme climate event.

Transport of Water Vapor over North China during the Drought Period in Summer of 1980

The features of water vapor transport, such as temporal evolution, vertical structure and spatial pattern, over North China during the prolonged drought in the summer of 1980 have been analyzed through computation of water vapor flux based on the once daily ECMWF grid-point data at 12GMT. The results indicate that it is unlikely that the characteristics of the atmospheric mass divergence, ascending motion and stratification stability in North China were completely opposite to those in the Yangtze River Valley, where the heavy flood occurred in the summer of 1980. It is major differences that the strong ascending motion and significant water vapor convergence overlap fairly well each other in the vertical levels in the Yangtze River Valley, while the maximum ascending motion is accompanied by water vapor divergence or weak water vapor convergence in North China. This vertical structure in North China results in insufficient water vapor supply and, therefore, little condensation and precipitation in the middle and upper atmosphere were produced. Additionally, a mode of monthly-scale low frequency oscillation can be found in water vapor flux, which is in correspondence to the fluctuation period of rainfall.