Less attention has been paid to haze weather during the autumn season. Here, we unravel the mechanism of how SST anomalies over the subtropical North Atlantic and western North Pacific drive the interannual variability of the autumnal haze days in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. The two pathways of SST anomaly forcings can result in an anticyclonic (cyclonic) anomaly over Northeast Asia, leading to a lower-level southerly (northerly) anomaly and in turn more (fewer) haze days in this region.