Heavy Rainfall Events in Southern China Associated with Tropical Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal: A Case Study
Junpeng Yuan,
Jiao Lü,
Dian Feng,
Mengni Mao,
Tao Feng,
Juyue Yin,
Ling Zuo
Affiliations
Junpeng Yuan
Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment and Processes in the Boundary Layer over the Low-latitude Plateau Region, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
Jiao Lü
Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment and Processes in the Boundary Layer over the Low-latitude Plateau Region, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
Dian Feng
Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment and Processes in the Boundary Layer over the Low-latitude Plateau Region, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
Mengni Mao
Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment and Processes in the Boundary Layer over the Low-latitude Plateau Region, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
Tao Feng
Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment and Processes in the Boundary Layer over the Low-latitude Plateau Region, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
Juyue Yin
Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment and Processes in the Boundary Layer over the Low-latitude Plateau Region, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
Ling Zuo
Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment and Processes in the Boundary Layer over the Low-latitude Plateau Region, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
We use a case study to show that a continuous heavy rainfall process in southern China was closely related to tropical cyclone activity in the Bay of Bengal. The continuous heavy rainfall that occurred in southern China on 11–13 May 2002 can be considered as two different processes. The first process, referred to as a predecessor rain event, occurred over southwestern China before landfall of the tropical cyclone. The second process occurred after dissipation of the tropical cyclone when its remnant caused heavy rainfall that expanded from southwestern China to the middle to lower reaches of the Yangtze–Huaihe river basin. Both of the heavy rainfall processes were closely related to the transport of warm, moist air associated with a tropical cyclone originating over the Bay of Bengal, but the mechanisms in the two processes were quite different. Low-level orographic forcing was the main contributor to the predecessor rain event, whereas baroclinic frontogenesis induced by thermal advection was the main contributor to the tropical cyclone remnant event. Both heavy rainfall events occurred beneath the equatorial entrance of the upper level East Asian subtropical jet.
