The Tibetan Plateau (TP), known as the third pole of the Earth, has snow cover with intraseasonal to decadal variability that affects weather and climate both inside and outside the TP. However, the factors that generate the TP snow cover (TPSC) anomalies at the intraseasonal time-scale are unclear. This report reveals the influence of the Madden‒Julian oscillation (MJO), which is the most dominant component of the tropical intraseasonal variability, on TPSC. We focus on wintertime snow cover over the central and eastern TP, where the intraseasonal variability is large. TPSC increases/decreases in the MJO phases 8‒1/4-5, when the eastward-propagating MJO suppressed/enhanced convection locates over the Maritime Continent. Such a change in TPSC leads to the most dominant positive/negative anomalies of TPSC in the following phases 2‒3/6‒7 due to the non-significant change of TPSC in these phases. There is anomalous moisture advection over the upstream of the TP caused by MJO-excited large-scale atmospheric circulation. The advection process generates the low-frequency eastward-propagating anomalous water vapour from upstream to the TP that influences precipitation and, eventually, TPSC.

The responses of atmospheric variability to Tibetan Plateau (TP) snow cover (TPSC) at seasonal, interannual and decadal time scales have been extensively investigated. However, the atmospheric response to faster subseasonal variability of TPSC has been largely ignored. Here, we show that the subseasonal variability of TPSC, as revealed by daily data, is closely related to the subsequent East Asian atmospheric circulation at medium-range time scales (approximately 3-8 days later) during wintertime. TPSC acts as an elevated cooling source in the middle troposphere during wintertime and rapidly modulates the land surface thermal conditions over the TP. When TPSC is high, the upper-level geopotential height is lower, and the East Asia upper-level westerly jet stream is stronger. This finding improves our understanding of the influence of TPSC at multiple time scales. Furthermore, our work highlights the need to understand how atmospheric variability is rapidly modulated by fast snow cover changes.