Where is monsoon located

The South Asian monsoon, which includes the Indian monsoon, is especially strong because the Himalayas and other mountains block dry air in the north from getting to the humid monsoon region.

The seasonally wet and dry region just south of the Sahara Desert in West Africa and the Sahel is another classic monsoon region. Monsoons occur in the Americas too, but tend to be weaker than in other regions. The animated map below shows how precipitation varies through a typical year. Notice that most precipitation occurs in the tropics and swings north and south of the equator with the seasons. This seasonal shift in the location of tropical precipitation indicates a shift in the location of the ITCZ and is the reason why there are distinct wet and dry seasons on tropical continents.

Patterns of precipitation through the year Image: University of Oregon. From December until February, the monsoon rains move south of the equator towards Australia while South Asia experiences dry monsoon conditions.

There is even an East Asian monsoon that brings summer rain to China, Japan, and Korea, but it is caused by a different type of wind pattern associated with the jet stream. Monsoons bring large amounts of rain to a location, often leading to large-scale vegetation growth.

Image: University of Oregon. Monsoon winds in the tropical parts of North America, Central America, and South America cause the amount of rainfall to vary with the seasons, even in areas where precipitation is plentiful and rainforests thrive. From June to August, which are summer months in the Northern Hemisphere, there is more rainfall north of the equator in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, and western Mexico.

From December to February there is more rainfall south of the equator in Brazil. The North American monsoon does bring moisture from the warm waters of the Pacific into the U. Southwest, but its peak rainfall occurs in Mexico, and the U.

These areas are typically dry but can receive enough rainfall to quell a wildfire if moist monsoon winds blow in summer. An area of summer rainfall along the U. East Coast is associated with what some might call a mid-latitude version of monsoon rainfall. Meanwhile, sub-Saharan Africa becomes particularly hot and dry in winter as air descends from high in the atmosphere to the ground as part of the Hadley Circulation.

The locations of the heaviest tropical rainfall from December to February top and June to August bottom. Images: UCAR. Rajeev told the Indian press on Friday June 12, , after a full night of rain. He referred to winds even though people cared more about the rains that had just started.

Air warmed in the tropics rises, flows towards the poles, then downward in the subtropics, and back to the equator. Image: UCAR. Sunlight, and the energy it brings to Earth, is the driving force behind the Hadley Circulation. Sunlight heats land and ocean surfaces near the equator. The warmed surface releases energy into the atmosphere, in the form of heat and evaporated water.

As it flows toward the poles, this air cools and drops down toward the surface of the Earth in the subtropics, near 30 degrees latitude north or south of the equator. As air rises near the equator and then flows poleward, it leaves an area of fewer air molecules at the equator. This is a region of low pressure because there is a smaller mass of air left over the equator. Air from the subtopics, north and south of the equator, flows in to fill the space, completing the loop of Hadley Circulation.

Water vapor condenses as air rises and cools in the ITCZ, forming clouds and falling as rain. The ITCZ can be seen from space as a band of clouds around the planet. This is where monsoon rainfall occurs. If the Earth were not rotating, winds would blow directly towards the Intertropical Convergence Zone from the north and south. But the Earth is rotating — making a full turn on its axis each day — which turns the wind to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.

It also affects the movement of ocean currents and the direction of rotation in hurricanes. Motions that span hundreds to thousands of miles feel the Coriolis force. It does not impact smaller scale phenomena like tornadoes. And contrary to legend, the direction that water spins in a flushing toilet is due to toilet design, as toilets are much too small to feel the Coriolis force. The way the trade winds turned to the west on their way to the equator was of great interest to George Hadley, an 18th Century British lawyer who dabbled in meteorology.

He proposed that it was the spin of the Earth that caused the winds to turn as they blew towards the equator. He produced what was essentially the first global theory of atmospheric circulation. Over the years other scientists have refined and further developed these ideas, but Hadley did get some of the basics correct.

Today, the Hadley Circulation in the tropics is named after George Hadley. The bursts are supported by a variety of patterns of low level moisture surges while the breaks often occur with an increase in westerly winds. Examples are shown below, with summer precipitation for Deming and precipitation for Albuquerque, clearly illustrating active or wet "burst" periods followed by dry "break" episodes.

The variability of low level moisture surges can also be seen by examining daily dewpoint temperature data across the southwest U. An archive of the daily dewpoint tracker for the Albuquerque Sunport is available here. Interannual variability of the North American Monsoon System is controlled by both ocean and land conditions, including sea surface temperature, soil moisture and snow cover.

As illustrated in the graph below, New Mexico precipitation for the 2-month period of July through August shows substantial variability from year to year. While the average from through is 4. The variability noted in New Mexico is common for all areas affected by the North American Monsoon System and has long been a topic of research.

Several studies have shown an inverse relationship with winter precipitation and monsoon precipitation for the following season. The figure below depicts the distribution of a precipitation index for Arizona and New Mexico for seasons starting with a wet winter dashed line versus a dry winter dotted line with a comparison to the mean value for all years solid line.

This study, published in was one of the first to document the inverse relationship such that wet winters are often followed by a drier than normal monsoon while dry winters are associated with a wetter than normal monsoon. Statistics using local New Mexico snowpack data for more recent years supports this relationship. The map below shows the average percent of the long-term average precipitation by climate division for monsoons following dry winters.

In fact, our recent record wettest monsoon summer of followed an exceptionally dry winter. Please Contact Us. Please try another search. Multiple locations were found. Please select one of the following:. Location Help. While less rain is usually received overall in September, the rain that does come can often be torrential. Unfortunately, many cities become flooded at the start of the monsoon and during heavy downpours.

This is due to drains being unable to cope with the volume of water, often because of trash that has built up over the summer and hasn't been properly cleared.

Out of India's major cities, Mumbai receives the most rain during the southwest monsoon. Kolkata used to receive a lot of rain but this has decreased in recent years, with the northeast monsoon tending to bring more downpours. The eastern Himalaya region, around Darjeeling and Shillong the capital of Meghalaya , is one of the wettest areas in not just India, but the whole world, during the monsoon. This is because the monsoon picks up additional moisture from the Bay of Bengal as it heads towards the Himalayan range.

Travel to this region should definitely be avoided during monsoon time, unless you really love the rain! If you do, then Cherrapunji in Meghalaya is the place for you it has the honor of getting the highest rainfall in the world. As far as major cities are concerned, Delhi , Bangalore and Hyderabad receive comparatively less rain.

Chennai doesn't receive much rain at all during the southwest monsoon, as Tamil Nadu gets most of its rainfall from the northeast monsoon, from October to December. Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh also experience this monsoon, as well as heavy rainfall during the southwest monsoon.

Areas that receive the least rain and are most suited to travel during the monsoon include the desert state of Rajasthan, the Deccan Plateau on the eastern side of the Western Ghats mountain range, and Ladakh in far north India. Monsoon time can be a great time to visit India as tourist attractions aren't crowded, airfares can be cheaper, and bargain rates are up for grabs at hotels throughout the country.

You'll also get to see another side of India, where nature comes alive in a landscape of cool, lush greenery. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content.

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