Impacts of the North India Ocean SST on the extremely cold winters of 2011 and 2012 in the region of Da Hinggan Mountains and its western areas in China

The study of the winter temperatures, averaged from the records of 11 observatories in the Da Hinggan Mountains and its western areas in China (DHM-WA), identified 11 extremely cold (≤???1.5 °C) and 13 extremely warm winters (≥?+?1.5 °C) during the past 60 years (1951–2010). The winters of 2011 and 2012 are another two extremely cold events. Aimed at exploring the climate causes, a comprehensive investigation is carried out on variations of some major atmospheric circulation components. Additionally, opposite circulation regimes are verified by examining the mean 500-hPa circulation patterns and sea level pressure (SLP) corresponding to 14 warm and 18 cold sea surface temperature (SST) phases over the North India Ocean (NIO) during the period of 1951–2010. Composite of an extremely cold winter usually includes a large and strong Siberian High, a deep East Asian trough to the west, an small and weak western Pacific Subtropical High to the east, a large North Polar vortex and a weakened westerly stream over Eurasia continent accompanied by a strong meridional winds from the polar region to lower latitude. Moreover, it has been found that a favorable circulation condition associated with the extremely cold winters to DHM-WA is mainly controlled by the SST over NIO in the previous warm season (June–September); This is primarily related to changes in the intensity of the Walker and Anti-Walker circulations, which subsequently influence the major circulation components and result in an extremely cold winter in DHM-WA.