The onset of South China Sea summer monsoon in 1998 occurred on May 21st. Using the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction reanalysis data, this paper examines the physical process of the weakening of a subtropical anticyclone in West Pacific during the onset period using the Zwack-Okossi vorticity equation. Results show that during the pre-onset period, the positive vorticity advection in front of an upper tropospheric trough was the most dominant physical mechanism for the increase of the cyclonic vorticity on the 850-hPa layer over the South China Sea and its nearby region. The secondary contribution to the increase of the cyclonic vorticity was the warm-air advection. After the onset, the magnitude of the latent-heat warming term rapidly increased and its effect on the increase of the cyclonic vorticity was about the same as the positive-vorticity advection. The adiabatic term and divergence term contributed negatively to the increase of the cyclonic vorticity most of the time. Thus, the positive vorticity advection is the most important physical mechanism for the weakening of the West Pacific subtropical anticyclone over the South China Sea during the onset period.
