Monsoon

[MP-R]

Monsoon is usually what some would associate with torrential rain over northern India. It's a little bit more than just that. The word 'monsoon' actually means 'constant, steady wind' rather than 'torrential rain'. The monsoon climate is very common over Southeast Asia and India. In the winter, the weather is always dry with very little rain as the wind blows off the continent bringing predominantly sunny and warm conditions. This is the dry monsoon.

Between March and June, the heat builds over Afghanistan and parts of the Middle to Centre East and low pressure starts to build. Low-level winds are sucked into the plume of hot air. Countries east of India such as Burma and parts of Thailand experience this southwesterly flow off the Indian Ocean and this is the reason for the torrential rain falling constantly from the end of June to the end of October. This is the wet monsoon. The wettest place on record, as most people know is Cherrapunji, high in the Khasi-Jaintia mountains of the Meghalaya region of India.

As quite expected, the monsoon rains don't arrive everywhere at the same time. Some places further south get it by about the 14th June, give or take a day whereas further north, as the low pressure progresses, it doesn't set in until the 23rd. ITCZ is an abbreviation of 'Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone'. Some meteorologists look at the Asian monsoon as being a displacement of the 'Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone. Although we associate monsoon as being an occurrence in Asia, it happens elsewhere too. For example, a mini-monsoon affects Western Africa.