Moisture Origins and Transport Processes for the 2020 Yangtze River Valley Record-Breaking Mei-yu Rainfall

The summer of 2020 recorded a record-breaking flood due to excessive mei-yu rain falling over the Yangtze River Valley (YRV). Using the Lagrangian model FLEXPART, this paper investigates moisture sources and transport processes behind this extreme event. Based on climate data from 1979 to 2019, the air-particle (an infinitesimally small air parcel) trajectories reaching the YRV show sectors that correspond to five main moisture sources: the Indian monsoon region (IND, 27.5% of the total rainfall), the local evaporation (27.4%), the Western Pacific Ocean (WPO, 21.3%), the Eurasian continent (8.5%) and Northeast Asia (4.4%). In the 2020 mei-yu season, moisture from all source regions was above normal except that from Northeast Asia. A record-breaking moisture source from the IND and WPO dominated this extreme mei-yu flood in 2020, which was 1.5 and 1.6 times greater than the climate mean, respectively. This study reveals a significant relationship between the moisture source with three moisture transport processes, i.e., trajectory density, moisture content, and moisture uptake of air-particles. A broad anomalous anticyclonic circulation over the Indo-Northwestern Pacific (Indo-NWP) provides a favorable environment to enhance the moisture transport from the IND and WPO into the YRV. In the 2020 mei-yu season, a record-breaking Indo-NWP anomalous anticyclonic circulation contributed to a higher trajectory density as well as higher moisture content and moisture uptake of air-particles from the IND and WPO regions. This collectively resulted in unprecedented moisture transport from source origins, thus contributing to the mei-yu flood over the YRV in 2020.

Automated summary

This study investigates the moisture sources and transport processes behind the record-breaking flood in the Yangtze River Valley in 2020, revealing a significant impact from moisture sources in the Indian monsoon region and the Western Pacific Ocean.