• Question: how does a monsoon work

    Asked by 549cmtm28 to Aileen, Christopher, Rehemat, Stephanie, Stephen on 14 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Aileen Baird

      Aileen Baird answered on 14 Mar 2018:

      I’m not completely sure how monsoons work in regions which have a monsoon season- hopefully one of the other scientists will be able to answer your question, and I’ll be able to learn something here too!
      If not, we’ll have to do some research and find out!

    • Photo: Stephanie Mann

      Stephanie Mann answered on 14 Mar 2018:

      Over south East Asia, they are so close to the equator that you only really have 2 seasons and that’s to do with the wind. In the winter (October to April), the wind tends to blow in from the continent, causing the dry season. And in the summer (May to September) the wind tends to blow from the Pacific Ocean bringing lots of rain, called monsoon season. Monsoon isn’t normally one big rainy storm, it can be a whole season of lots of clouds and rain.

    • Photo: Christopher Nankervis

      Christopher Nankervis answered on 14 Mar 2018:

      A monsoon actually means a seasonal pattern in winds, though some refer to it wrongly as rainfall. In Asian, warm and moist winds blow from the Indian Ocean and meet very hot and dry air over the land. This contrast in air properties causes big thunderstorm clouds to form and leads to very heavy rainfall often of more than half a metre in a day. This causes flooding for parts of Asia during the summer rather than the very hot weather sticking around.

    • Photo: Stephen Twomlow

      Stephen Twomlow answered on 15 Mar 2018:

      wow how long do I have on this one – basically as temperatures rise over the India Ocean more sea water is evaporated to create dense clouds – when the temperatures start to rise in Indian say the air on the land rises and the heavy water laden clouds from the ocean move in land to replace the rising hot air – when the two systems meet we get storms and the monsoon starts

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