Abstract:In boreal autumn (September-October-November, SON) of 2022, the climate of China is characterised as “warmer and drier” than normal, and most of southern part has experienced persistent high temperature and drought. The average autumn temperature in China is ranked the highest since 1961. And the intraseasonal variability of precipitation is significant, with less rainfall in most of China in September, less in the south and north of China and more in Central China in October, more in central-eastern China and less in the west of China in November. From September to October, the northerly wind anomaly is strong over southern China with worse than normal moisture transport from South China Sea and Northwesten Pacific. The West Pacific subtropical high (WPSH) is stronger, larger and more westward than normal. Descending motion is dominant over southern China leading to less rainfall and high temperature, and thus drought condition. The influence of tropical sea surface temperature (SST) forcing shows that the warmer warm-pool in Indo-Pacific, colder SST in tropical East-Central Pacific and west equatorial Indian, correspond to the significant coupling characteristics between the zonal monsoon circulation over the equatorial Indian Ocean and the Walker circulation over the Pacific Ocean, which further play important roles in modulating drought over most of southern China. The SST anomalies in equatorial Indian and Pacific are coupled with the air-sea gearing between Indian summer monsoon and Walker circulation in Pacific. The tropical Indian Ocean dipole (TIOD) has significant influence of precipitation over the western part of Jiangnan and the southeastern part of Southwest China, while El Ni〖AKn~D〗o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) mainly affects most of Jiangnan and northern South China. Therefore, the heavy drought over southern China in autumn 2022 is modulated by both the TIOD negative mode and La Ni〖AKn~D〗a state.