Climatology of line-shaped rainbands over northern Japan in boreal summer between 1990 and 2010

Abstract

Line-shaped rainbands (LRBs) are severe storm events that cause torrential rainfall across the mid-latitudes and are difficult to accurately predict because of their complex physical processes. We examined the occurrence of LRBs in boreal summer in northern Japan over the period 1990-2010. In years with anomalously many LRBs, the development of LRBs over northern Japan was driven by a combined positive anomaly of warm sea-surface temperatures and westerly moisture flux associated with the prominent pattern of the surface pressure anomalies between the main island of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk. In contrast, the number of LRBs were significantly small with opposite characteristics. © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society.