Why does India have monsoons?


     The seasonal winds of south-west Asia known as monsoons are associated particularly with India because of the lives of the inhabitants. The winds are drawn to India by changes in the temperature of the great land mass. A good monsoon season with plenty of rain means a comparatively good supply of food. A bad monsoon with little rain means a bad rice crop and, perhaps, starvation for many millions.



    Monsoons come from the Arabic mausim, meaning season. The summer season monsoon is a great inrush of moisture-laden air from the ocean. The winter monsoon blows from the land to the sea.



    In India there are three seasons: the hot dry season from March to June; the hot wet season from June to November; and the cool dry season from December to March. During the hot dry season the great plains of northern India becomes like a furnace and a region of low pressure develops.



   By mid-June, the pressure is low all the way to the Equator and draws the south-east trade winds to India, filled with water-vapour as they cross the Indian Ocean. When they meet the hot dry air over India, violent thunderstorms result, followed by steady rain in July. By November India has received three-quarters of its annual rainfall.



    Then the land mass cools and the lower pressure to the south attract the north east trade winds. These bring no rain to India except to the Coromandel Coast and Ceylon, where the rainfall in late September is heavy, because the winds have picked up water vapour as they cross the Bay of Bengal.



Picture credit: google


Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

Comments

Display comments as Linear | Threaded

No comments

Add Comment

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.
To leave a comment you must approve it via e-mail, which will be sent to your address after submission.