Joint effects of three oceans on the 2020 super mei-yu

An unexpected super mei-yu struck in 2020 in the Yangtze-Huaihe River basin,southern Korea,and southern Japan(hereafter referred to as the mei-yu regions),causing many casualties and huge economic losses.The super mei-yu was characterized by a remarkably early onset(around 1 June),late withdrawal(around 1 August),and intense rainfalI during the mei-yu season.The precipitation in the early onset and late withdrawal stages contributed more than half of the total mei-yu-period precipitation over the mei-yu regions in 2020.In this study,the authors explored the dominant remote forcing of the mei-yu early onset and late withdrawal to understand the mechanisms of this super mei-yu.The early onset can mainly be attributed to an early northward-shifted East Asian jet stream(EAJS).The late withdrawal mainly resulted from the stagnant EAJS and the western North Pacific subtropical high(WPSH) during 10 July to 1 August.Specifically,North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies(SSTAs) excited a Rossby wave,which was steered by atmospheric anomalies related to the western North Pacific SSTAs,causing the early northward-shifted EAJS and generating an early onset.The record-breaking warm SSTAs over the North Indian Ocean to South China Sea and the reduced sea-ice concentration(SIC) over the Laptev-East Siberian Sea played important roles in causing the stagnant WPSH and EAJS during July,which led to the late withdrawal.Meanwhile,the SIC anomalies may have caused the inhomogeneous rainfall distribution in the mei-yu regions.Furthermore,projection results suggest that the probability of a late mei-yu withdrawal similar to the 2020 case will increase in the future.Finally,potential predictors of an extreme mei-yu are discussed.