Extreme Cold Events in North America and Eurasia in November-December 2022: A Potential Vorticity Gradient Perspective

From 17 November to 27 December 2022, extremely cold snowstorms frequently swept across North America and Eurasia. Diagnostic analysis reveals that these extreme cold events were closely related to the establishment of blocking circulations. Alaska Blocking (AB) and subsequent Ural Blocking (UB) episodes are linked to the phase transition of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and represent the main atmospheric regimes in the Northern Hemisphere. The downstream dispersion and propagation of Rossby wave packets from Alaska to East Asia provide a large-scale connection between AB and UB episodes. Based on the nonlinear multi-scale interaction (NMI) model, we found that the meridional potential vorticity gradient (PVy) in November and December of 2022 was anomalously weak in the mid-high latitudes from North America to Eurasia and provided a favorable background for the prolonged maintenance of UB and AB events and the generation of associated severe extreme snowstorms. However, the difference in the UB in terms of its persistence, location, and strength between November and December is related to the positive (negative) NAO in November (December). During the La Nina winter of 2022, the UB and AB events are related to the downward propagation of stratospheric anomalies, in addition to contributions by La Nina and low Arctic sea ice concentrations as they pertain to reducing PVy in mid-latitudes.

Automated summary

From 17 November to 27 December 2022, frequent extremely cold snowstorms occurred in North America and Eurasia. These events were closely related to the establishment of blocking circulations. The Alaska Blocking (AB) and subsequent Ural Blocking (UB) episodes were associated with the phase transition of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and represented the main atmospheric regimes in the Northern Hemisphere. The dispersion and propagation of Rossby wave packets from Alaska to East Asia created a large-scale connection between AB and UB episodes.