East Asia experienced extremely cold weather in January 2011, while the previous December and the following February had normal winter temperature. In this study National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis data are used to investigate the characteristic features observed in the meteorological fields such as temperature, sea-level pressure, geopotential height, and wind during this winter period. In January the planetary-wave pattern is dominated by stationary-wave form in the mid-to-high latitude region, while transient waves are significant in the previous month. To understand the planetary-wave features quantitatively, harmonic analyses have been done for the 500-hPa geopotential height field. In the climatological-mean geopotential heights the wave numbers 1, 2, and 3 are dominant during the whole winter. In January 2011 the waves of number 1, 2, and 3 are dominant and stationary as in the climatological-mean field. In December 2010 and February 2011, however, the waves of number 4, 5, and 6 play a major role and show a transient pattern. In addition to the distinctive features in each month the planetary-wave patterns dependent on the latitude are also discussed.