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A "monsoon" is a weather pattern; a monsoon has a different name

in each country that it affects. In the Philippines, the Summer


Monsoon (West or southwest) is called the Habagat (ha-bag-at) and
the Winter Monsoon (North or northeast) is called the Amihan (ame-han). The word 'monsoon' is believed to originate from the
Arabic word mawsim (season), via the Portuguese and then
Dutch monsun.A "monsoon" is a consistent wind pattern generated
by a large weather system, that lasts for a period of months and
affects a large area of the planet.
Summer Southwest Monsoon - Habagat

Summer Monsoon weather is characterized by a strong, generally


West or southwest breeze that is responsible for bringing significant
rainfall to the Asian subcontinent and to South and East Asia. The
significant southwest monsoon rainfall is a by-product of air passing
over large areas of warm equatorial ocean, stimulating increased
levels of evaporation from the oceans surface; the southwest
monsoon air, now laden with water vapour, cools as it moves north
and as it rises over land; at some point the air is no longer able
retain its moisture and precipitates copious volumes to irrigate rice
fields and drench rainforests, sometimes causing severe flooding
below hillsides that have been foolishly stripped of forest cover by
Man. The Summer Monsoon (West or southwest) is the predominant
weather pattern from late April through to early October each year,
throughout most Asian tropical destinations.
Winter Northeast Monsoon - Amihan

Winter Monsoon weather features a generally less strong, East or


northeast breeze that is cool and dry (compared to the Summer
Monsoon weather) with prolonged periods of successive cloudless
days. The Winter Monsoon (North or northeast) features cool and
dry air that originates in a vast anticyclone - a weather system with
a high barometric pressure - which forms over Siberia, Mongolia and
northern China during each northern winter. The Winter Monsoon air
from the anticyclone pushes outward in a clockwise motion from its
centre and competes with the Summer Monsoon over a period of a
week or two, usually starting in late September and early October,

before finally dominating the weather with a cooler and drier


northeast monsoon, in most Asian tropical and sub-tropical
destinations, through to the following April.There is no specific
weather pattern equivalent to a monsoon season in southern
latitudes because there is no continent large enough to create the
conditions similar to those that drive the alternate Winter Monsoon,
as in the North. It could be said that the southern hemisphere is
perpetually in varying degrees of Summer Monsoon condition; Brazil
and parts of equatorial Africa occasionally experience some weather
patterns that show some seasonal differences.
Regardless of which monsoon shows up this summer, one thing is for certain:
dangerous weather will leave its mark. In the Southwest, flash floods, dust storms,
strong winds, hail, excessive heat, and fires injure people and property, said Evans.
Of these, lightning has the potential to cause the greatest damage.For most of the
Southwest, the monsoon season is also the fire season. On June 21, lightning
zapped Pima County 46 times, shooting electromagnetic pulses for each strike more
than 400 miles across the landscape. Each pulse passed through a network of
sensors that pinpointed where the lightning touched down. For one strike, sensors
were not needed, as smoke began billowing from the Rincon Mountains east of
Tucson. The blaze, called the Distillery Fire, burned more than 8,500 acres in eight
days before monsoon rains helped extinguish it. A day later, Pima County lit-up with
another 218 strikes, a large fraction of the 928 cloud-to-ground strikes that
occurred on June 22 in the entire state of Arizona. Two of these ignited the ApacheSitgreaves National Forest near Clifton and Alpine, starting the Hot Air and Bear
Mountain fires that charred more than 10,000 acres. In New Mexico, the eastern
half of the state was bombarded with 8,024 ground strikes on June 24. Fortunately,
only one ignited a fire.In the ramp-up phase of the monsoon, from mid-June to
early July, the landscape is more susceptible to large and uncontrollable fires
because little precipitation has typically fallen since April and vegetation is
desiccated. According to a detailed Tucson NWS website dedicated to monsoon
tracking and education, isolated thunderstorms develop over the mountains in the
afternoon. But because moisture from the Gulf of California has yet to flow into
Arizona and New Mexico, the lower levels of the atmosphere are dry and the rain
evaporates as it falls to the Earth. Lightning, however, reaches the ground,

sometimes igniting wildfires, and the storms often bring gusty winds that fan the
fires.In the Southwest, lightning has ignited more than 2,300 fires annually since
2001, burning on average approximately 277,000 acres per year. Those figures,
however, represent a mere fraction of the number of lightning strikes.Between 1996
and 2005, an average of 673,320 lightning bolts touched down in Arizona each
year, according to Ron Halle, meteorologist and consultant for Vaisala Inc., a
company that monitors lightning.During July and August, Arizona receives a similar
number of lightning strikes as Florida, Halle said. With a lightning season that
stretches more than six monthsat least twice as long as TucsonsFlorida is
considered the lightning capital of the United States.The most active lightning
region in North America, however, is only a few hundred miles southeast of Tucson.
Twice as many lightning bolts strike the Sierra Madre of Mexico than in Florida, said
Pytlak.
In the Philippines, amihan refers to the season dominated by the trade winds, which are
experienced in the Philippines as a cool northeast wind.[1] It is characterized by moderate
temperatures, little or no rainfall, and a prevailing wind from the east.
As a rule of thumb, the Philippines' amihan weather pattern begins sometime in September or
October and ends sometime in May or June. There may, however, be wide variations from year
to year.[2]
Throughout the rest of the year, the Philippines experiences the west or southwest wind; south
west monsoon,[1] which in turn is referred to as the habagat. The habagat season is
characterized by hot and humid weather, frequent heavy rainfall, and a prevailing wind from the
west.
The main indicator of the switch between the amihan and habagat seasonal patterns is the
switch in wind direction. In most years this transition is abrupt and occurs overnight. In some
years there is a period of perhaps a week or two where the wind will switch
between amihan and habagat patterns several times before settling into the pattern for the new
season.
Hanging Habagat or Southwest Monsoon is a south western monsoon which comes during the months of
June-September. The Thar Desert and adjoining areas of the northern and central Indian subcontinent
heats up considerably during the hot summers, which causes a low pressure area over the northern and
central Indian subcontinent. To fill this void, the moisture-laden winds from the Indian Ocean rush in to the

subcontinent. These winds, rich in moisture, are drawn towards the Himalayas, creating winds blowing
storm clouds towards the subcontinent. The Himalayas act like a high wall, blocking the winds from
passing into Central Asia, thus forcing them to rise. With the gain in altitude of the clouds, the temperature
drops and precipitation occurs. Some areas of the subcontinent receive up to 10,000 mm (390 in) of rain.
Hanging Amihan or Northeast Monsoon comes from within September. Around September, with the sun
fast retreating south, the northern land mass of the Indian subcontinent begins to cool off rapidly. With this
air pressure begins to build over northern India, the Indian Ocean and its surrounding atmosphere still
holds its heat. This causes the cold wind to sweep down from the Himalayas and Indo-Gangetic Plain
towards the vast spans of the Indian Ocean south of the Deccan peninsula.

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