Fig. 2: Month-by-month evolutions of SSTA and Atmospheric circulation anomalies in persistent years.

SSTA (colors in a1–a4, units: K) from DJF to MAM, and SLP (contours in a1–a4, units: hPa), 850 hPa (colors in b1–b4, units: gpm) and 300 hPa geopotential height (contours in b1–b4, units: gpm), 300 hPa zonal wind (colors in c1–c4, units: m s−1) anomalies from NDJ to FMA in persisting years. The contours in (c1–c4) denote the corresponding climatological zonal wind. The corresponding abbreviated month name is labeled in the top-right corner of each panel. The black slashes indicate the colored regions exceeding 90% confidence level with the Student’s t-test.