A super cold wave occurred in South China in January 2016 against the background of the extremely strong El Niño of 2016/2016.Cities in the Yangtze River Delta experienced their coldest temperatures since 1991;for example,the minimum temperature in Nanjing was -10℃.Also,new records for minimum temperature were set in South China;for example,the minimum temperature in Fuzhou was -1.9℃.To analyze the dynamic mechanism involved,Plumb's wave activity flux(WAF) and local Eliassen-Palm flux were computed using ERA-Interim reanalysis data.Harmonic analysis along the parallel circles was performed firstly,to extract the 1-4 wave signal,revealing evident modulation by transient waves of the atmospheric longwave anomalies.The previous positive anomaly of the sea surface heat flux in the North Atlantic in December 2015 benefitted the maintenance of the later Atlantic blocking.The energy of the atmospheric long waves was propagated from the Atlantic blocking to the midlatitudes in East Asia along the great circle.The Urals blocking and transverse trough in East Asia developed well.The meridional distribution of the atmospheric disturbance centers led to more cold air in the transverse trough.Before the outbreak of the cold wave,two transient wave trains were located in Eurasia.The northern one lay along western Europe to East Asia and modulated the rotation of the transverse trough.At the same time,the southern one lay along western Europe to the Bay of Bengal and weakened the India-Burma trough.They came together to favor cold advection moving southwards to South China.The cold wave then occurred in South China.