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WHAT IS SOUTH WEST MONSOON?

The summer or south-west monsoon comes in from the direction of Africa, and brings heavy rain to the west coast and large areas of northern India between June and August.

The basic monsoon mechanism lies in the fact that land heats up and cools more quickly than the sea; the latter holding its temperature more or less steady. As the sun moves north bringing our summer heat, the land steadily gets hotter and hotter, while the temperature of the ocean lags far behind. The effect on a huge land mass like Asia as the hot air rises over the land, leaving below a vast area of low pressure, is to draw in massive amounts of air from over the ocean, where higher pressures are maintained. This is the south-west monsoon pattern (it is the wind, and not the resulting rain, which is defined as the monsoon).


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