Influences of Large-scale Atmospheric Circulation and Local Sea Surface Temperature on Convective Activity over the Sea of Japan in December

The characteristics of the anomalous winter climate around Japan in December 2005, including abnormally heavy snowfall, were analyzed from the viewpoint of interannual variation using reanalysis data for 50 years. The anomalous snowfall near the Sea of Japan in 2005 is attributed to an anomalous air-mass modification over the Sea of Japan, the large changes of thermodynamic characteristics due to the warmth of the Sea of Japan. Thermodynamic budget analyses showed that the air-mass modification in December 2005 over the Sea of Japan was the strongest in more than 40 years. Air-mass modification over the Sea of Japan was strongly related with a large-scale atmospheric north-south dipole pattern consisting of a northern high covering Siberia and a southern low covering a wide area of Japan in the 500 hPa height field in the positive phase (SJ pattern). In addition, the local SST variability during late autumn was significantly related to air-mass modification. However, the Arctic Oscillation was not significantly correlated with the air-mass modification over the Sea of Japan on an interannual timescale.