Delayed Impacts of Arctic Sea-Ice Loss on Eurasian Severe Cold Winters

Abstract

This study suggests a possible mechanism of how the Arctic sea-ice loss can influence the mid-latitude climate in the Eurasian continent. It is shown that the low sea-ice concentration over the Barents-Kara-Laptev Seas in autumn typically leads to cold Eurasian in winters. It is demonstrated that the Arctic-to-midlatitude connection depends on the state of late autumn atmospheric circulation. When the autumn sea-ice reduction is accompanied by anticyclonic circulation over northern Eurasia, Eurasia becomes anomalously cold in the early winter. However, when cyclonic circulation is dominant, Eurasian cold anomalies appear in the late winter. This seasonally delayed response is further found to be related to the wind-driven sea-ice drift that causes warm anomalies over the Barents-Kara Seas in the following winter. These observational results are confirmed by model simulations, indicating that the recent Eurasian cold winters could be linked to their forced response to the Arctic sea-ice loss.