Diagnostic comparison of tropospheric blocking events with and without sudden stratospheric warming

Tropospheric blocking events over the Northern Hemisphere during 1980-2012 were composited and contrasted according to whether they coincided in time with a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW). Those that coincided with an SSW were associated with significantly greater poleward eddy heat fluxes in the upper troposphere near the block onset time than were those blocking events not coinciding with an SSW. Furthermore, the heat fluxes in the SSW-blocking composites were concentrated inside the stratospheric polar vortex (i.e., within an area enclosed by the outer edge of an objectively defined polar vortex). Thermally forced stratospheric geopotential height rises were also significantly larger near block onset time inside the stratospheric polar vortex in the SSW-blocking composites than in the non-SSW-blocking cases. Although all the SSW events during the investigated period coincided with tropospheric blocking, the reverse was not true since there were many more blocking events than SSWs. Therefore, blocking itself was not a sufficient condition for an SSW. It is conjectured that blocking may not be a necessary condition for an SSW if persistently anomalous tropospheric heat fluxes and thermally forced, stratospheric geopotential height rises, concentrated inside the stratospheric vortex, occur in the absence of blocking.