Abstract The strong East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) frequently brings severe cold weather and heavy snowfall to East Asia, emphasizing the needs for a comprehensive understanding of its underlying mechanisms. This study investigates how midlatitude atmosphere–ocean interactions, as a feedback process, influence EAWM variability. Strong EAWM brings lower‐tropospheric cold air in early winter, enhancing upward surface heat fluxes over the midlatitude western North Pacific (WNP) around 30°N. These anomalous fluxes progressively cool sea surface temperature (SST) south of Japan until late winter. Atmospheric general circulation model experiments revealed that the resulting cold SST anomalies modulate storm‐track activity and transient eddy‐mean flow interaction, facilitating an EAWM‐related cyclonic anomaly east of Japan in late winter. This circulation response acts to reinforces the EAWM, leading to further lower‐tropospheric cooling around Japan. These findings highlight the active role of the midlatitude WNP and importance of the atmosphere–ocean interactions in driving the EAWM variability.
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Last updated: November 30, 2025 04:25 AM
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