LINKAGE BETWEEN EURASIAN WINTER SNOW COVER AND REGIONAL CHINESE SUMMER RAINFALL

An inverse relationship has been documented by previous studies betwee n antecedent Eurasian winter snow cover (EWSC) and all-India summer mo nsoon rainfall. Because both China and India are strongly influenced b y the Asian monsoon system, it may be reasonable to ask whether a simi lar relationship exists between the EWSC and summer rainfall over Chin a, This study seeks an answer to this question. Only a weak interannua l relationship is found between the EWSC and summer rainfall over Chin a as a whole. This weak EWSC-rainfall linkage occurs only when the ave raged rainfall over the entire country is used. By dividing the countr y into several geographical regions based on observed features in the interannual variability of rainfall, we find much stronger regional ra infall-EWSC relationships. A strong in-phase EWSC-rainfall relationshi p is found in southern and northern China, whereas an inverse EWSC-rai nfall relationship appears in the western, central, and north-eastern parts of China. Thus, EWSC may be a useful predictor for regional Chin ese summer rainfall, but not for rainfall over the country as a whole.