Tell me more about monsoons

Gardener972

When does it start/end? How long does it last? How much rain and wind do you get? Is it comparable to a hurricane or is it the same thing? And while you're at it, how many true seasons are there in India (depending on where you are, of course)?

Alohaguy

Monsoons are different than Hurricanes in the sense that they arrive almost like clockwork every year. They start somewhere in the Arabian Sea and hit India's west coast around 15th of June very year. Then travel sort of east and North east. India's agriculture depends on Monsoons. They are a blessing and a curse at the same time. They come after India has been heated up by the sun and the soil cracks because of no moisture. They bring much needed moisture for crops etc, but they also bring floods.
About the seasons, as you said It depends where in India you are.
In the north there are 4 seasons. Other places like Chennai have 3 seasons HOT, HOTTER and Hottest!!

Noodle

No, it starts earlier than the 15th of June. Goa gets rain at the end of May if I'm not mistaken, and here in Pune, close to Mumbai, it starts around the 10th of June. Then it moves further East and North. Delhi only gets rain by July.

Here in Maharastra we have three seasons: winter (Nov - Feb), summer (Mar - May) and monsoon (June - October).

The amount of rain differs every year, the last couple of years have been very wet. There have been years where the monsoon doesn't come which is disastrous for everything alive.

Usually the beginning of the monsoon is wettest, and accompanied by thunderstorms and real heavy torrential downpours - you can't go out then.

In July/August it ususally settles in - you're gonna have every day some rain, but not too heavy, with breaks inbetween, i.e. some days without rain. It can be very windy, on our terrace still potted plants are toppling over now, but there are no thunderstorms anymore.

September/October it usually rains much less. Sometimes there is no rain at all in October and it gets really hot once more (up to 40 degrees) before the climate changes suddenly in November and you feel a chill at night.

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Nick-H

It is due in Kerala first week of June. Somewhere on the net there is a lovely chart of the expected positions/dates.

There are two monsoons. Here in Chennai we are usually oblivious to the SW monsoon, our peak April/May/June temperatures falling only slowly until our monsoon arrives Sept or Oct. If it does. This year we have had SW monsoon, and the temperature plummeted in mid june, giving daily rain (mostly at night --- the best kind) and nice temperatures in low to mid 30s. We even had a day or two when it dropped to 'winter' temperatures of below 30.

The same weather that was bringing us welcome relief was bringing major floods to parts of Andrha Pradesh.

We can have tropical cyclones, which can be pretty violent --- that's about the closest to hurricane. I don't know if wind speeds compare.

Meteriologists?

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malcolmgrundy

Hi the rains started here towards the end of may and until now it has rained every day but sometimes only for 10 mins so plenty of dry weather so no real problem on getting out and about. Not the time of year for sunbathing though cloudy almost all the time and if the sun does show by the time you reach the beach it has gone again. We are finding the worst part are the power cuts almost every day at some stage. Had one for 2 days which is a pain.

Hope this helps malcolm and jenny

machadinha

For a general overview, see also

http://www.indiamike.com/india/healt...e-chart-t4062/
Monsoon Map?
http://www.imd.gov.in/

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Nick-H

I nearly said Mach would know where to find the info!

machadinha

Heheh

Ta Nick

Familyonthemove

It sucks!

The only reason that many of the locals think the monsoon season is romantic - is that the censors have caused sex scenes in movies to be replaced by rain scenes. So by association people think rain is romantic.

It's good for the farmers of course - but meanwhile I'll just have to watch Bipasha in a rain shower and try to join local the mood

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machadinha

Splendid! Best explanation I ever heard!

Gardener972

Ah!!! Must be a lot of babies born in Feb.-March!

capt_mahajan

Err, the terms hurricane, cyclone, typhoon etc all refer to the same thing with the same characteristics.. Tropical Revolving Storms. (TRS).

PS and a TRS is further graded according to wind speeds and/or sea/swell heights, but a x category hurricane will be accompanied the same speeds/heights as a similar category cyclone.

Beautiful at close quarters.

Noodle

I'm still trying to picture how sexy rain looks?

Nick-H

Thank you Captain. I'm glad to say my sailing experience never got that far, not even a full gale. Though a force 6 in the shallow North sea is pretty revolting.

capt_mahajan

On whom?