Convection initiation during the Meiyu environment in the Yangtze-Huai River Basin of China

Convection is the main contributor to heavy rainfall over China's Yangtze-Huai River Basin (YHRB) during Meiyu season; however, the mechanisms of convection initiation (CI) associated with the Meiyu front are still not well understood. In this study, a large set of 86,099 CI events, identified from composite reflectivity data in YHRB over six Meiyu seasons, were used to investigate the characteristics of the spatiotemporal distribution of CI in YHRB. The result showed that the overwhelming majority of CI events (similar to 90%) occurred in the region of existing stratiform clouds. Meanwhile, CI tended to concentrate in mountainous areas and exhibited two triggering modes. By relating the CI events with an objective analysis of ERA5 reanalysis data, it was also revealed that the characteristics of CI occurrence varied with patterns of Meiyu circulation and their interactions with local topography, and the warm air advection pattern dominated the Meiyu CI. We further illustrated that CI on the plains occurred with a morning peak corresponding to environments of high 0-3 km shear (SHR3) and low most unstable convective available potential energy (MUCAPE), while the CI near or over mountains had an afternoon peak corresponding to low SHR3 and high MUCAPE environments.