A synoptic-scale upwelling event that developed off the east coast of the Hainan Island(EHIU) in the summer of 2010 is defi ned well via processing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) sea surface temperature(SST) data. The Regional Ocean Modeling System(ROMS) with high spatial resolution has been used to investigate this upwelling event. By comparing the ROMS results against tide station data, Argo fl oat profi les and MODIS SST, it is confi rmed that the ROMS reproduces the EHIU well. The cooler-water core(CWC) distinguished by waters(27) 27.5°C in the EHIU, which occurred in the east Qiongzhou Strait mouth area and was bounded by a high temperature gradient, was the focus of this paper. Vertical structure of the CWC suggests that interaction between the westward fl ow and the bathymetry slope played a signifi cant role in the formation of CWC. Numerical experiments indicated that the westward fl ow in the Qiongzhou Strait was the result of tidal rectifi cation over variable topography(Shi et al., 2002), thus tides played a critical role on the development of the CWC. The negative wind stress curl that dominated the east Qiongzhou Strait mouth area suppressed the intensity of the CWC by 0.2–0.4°C. Further, nonlinear interaction between tidal currents and wind stress enhanced vertical mixing greatly, which would benefi t the development of the CWC. A synoptic-scale upwelling event that developed off the east coast of the Hainan Island (EHIU) in the summer of 2010 is defi ned well via processing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sea surface temperature (SST) data. The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) with high spatial resolution has been used to investigate this upwelling event. By comparing the ROMS results against tide station data, Argo fl oat profi les and MODIS SST, it is confi rmed that the ROMS reproduces the EHIU well. The cooler -water core (CWC) distinguished by waters (27) 27.5 ° C in the EHIU, which occurred in the east Qiongzhou Strait mouth area and was bounded by a high temperature gradient, was the focus of this paper. Vertical structure of the CWC suggests that interaction between the westward fl ow and the bathymetry slope played a signifi cant role in the formation of CWC. Numerical experiments indicated that the westward fl ow in the Qiongzhou Strait was the result of tidal rectifi cation o This tidy wind stress curl that dominated the east Qiongzhou Strait mouth area suppressed the intensity of the CWC by 0.2-0.4 ° C Further, nonlinear interaction between tidal currents and wind stress enhanced vertical mixing greatly, which would benefi t the development of the CWC.