A Numerical Simulation of the Impact of Tropical Western Pacific SST Anomalies on the Decadal Shift of the Meiyu Belt

The sea surface temperature (SST) of the tropical western Pacific Ocean (TWPO) showed a pronounced warming in the late 1990s. Using numerical experiments of a regional climate model (RegCM), we analyzed the impact of this warming on rainfall over the Yangtze-Huaihe River valley of China during the Meiyu period (June–July). The model results revealed that the observed decadal changes in Meiyu rainfall since the late 1990s can be reproduced by a control experiment forced by the observed SST. Additionally, the sensitivity experiments suggested that the warming trend in the TWPO played a substantial role in the northward shift of the Meiyu belt in the late 1990s.