The main characteristics of the general atmospheric circulation in December 2023 are as follows.There were several polar vortex centers in the Northern Hemisphere.The atmospheric circulation presen-ted a great meridionality in mid-latitudes in Eurasia.The East Asian trough was stronger,and the sub-tropical high ridge in the Western Pacific Ocean was also abnormally stronger this month.The monthly mean precipitation(12.2 mm)over China was 2.5%more than normal(11.9 mm),and the monthly average temperature was-2.6℃,which is 0.4℃ above that in the same period of normal years.Totally,there were six cold air processes,one sand-dust weather process and one large-scale fog-haze event repor-ted this month.In particular,the 13-16 December intense cold wave that was encountered in most parts of China heavily was featured with wide influence range,large cooling range and remarkable low tempera-ture extremes.