Monsoon

“ Then every day has its afternoon shower, the air is heavy and stifling, all the tropic world is asteam and astew and afloat, vegetation is magnificent, insect life triumphant, and the mountains are hidden in nearly perpetual mist. There are heavy thunderstorms at the turn of the monsoon, and the one we had watched from the sea the Hallowe’en night before our arrival had washed earth and air until the foliage glistened, the air fairly sparkled, nature wore her most radiant smiles, and the tropics were ideal. ”

“ A very few time winds are like the monsoon, blowing at fixed intervals, first in one direction, then the other. Such a time wind blows near a balancing rock in a valley of red stones in the American Southwest. Every morning at ten o'clock, it blows a hundred years into the future; every afternoon at two, it blows a hundred years into the past. ”

“ Small wonder then that the advent of the creative monsoon is more heartily welcomed in India than is spring in England. No sound is more pleasing to the human ear than the drumming of the first monsoon rain.
But alas! the physical relief brought by the monsoon is only temporary. The temperature rises the moment the rain ceases to fall, and the prolonged breaks in the rains that occur every year render the last state of the climate worse than the first. ”

“ The monsoon transfigures the earth. The brown, dry, hard countryside, with its dust-covered trees, becomes for the time being a shallow lake in which are studded emerald islets innumerable. Stimulated by the rain many trees put forth fresh crops of leaves. At the first break in the downpour the cultivators rush forth with their ploughs and oxen to prepare the soil for the autumn crops with all the speed they may. ”

“ It is an extraordinary but well-ascertained fact, that as soon as one monsoon ceases, though a month may elapse before the succeeding one appears, the clouds take the direction of the approaching monsoon, and thus from the regions of the atmosphere herald its advent to the dwellers below. ”

“ A monsoon is a wind that blows from a continent toward the sea in winter, when the land is colder than the water, and in the opposite direction in summer, when the reverse conditions of temperature prevail. The pressure gradient is reversed with the seasons, and the wind varies accordingly.131 The most striking example of monsoon winds is found in southern Asia—where these winds are of special economic importance because they control the rainfall of India—but well-developed monsoons also occur in Australia and West Africa, over the Caspian Sea, on the coast of Texas, and elsewhere. ”

“ The monsoon countries are so named because of the regular seasonal reversal of the winds, which blow from land to sea in winter and from sea to land in summer, affording an example of a land and sea breeze on the gigantic scale. ”

“ During the south-west monsoon the clouds are driven against the lofty chain of mountains that overhang the western shore of the peninsula, and their condensed vapour descends there in copious showers. ”

“ Where, on the other hand, the land slopes upwards gradually to a central massif or ridge the effect of the differences of temperature is, as it were, cumulative, and the monsoons may extend over large areas, affecting regions distant from those in which the causes producing them are directly operative, and the monsoon winds may develop great strength. ”

“ The climate is the pleasantest during the north-east monsoon, which lasts from October to April. It is during the south-west monsoon that the heavier rains, accompanied by electrical disturbances, occur. ”

“ The North-East monsoon comes in the northern winter; the air from the North Pole coming down slowly is met by the earth as she turns, and as she rushes into it she makes it a north-eastern wind; this, coming over the land from the north, is a dry wind, while the other one, the South-Western monsoon, coming from the south over the ocean in the other half of the year, is a wet wind and brings the rain which is such a boon to India. ”

“ The sun is vertical twice a year, and consequently there are two springs, but these by the residents are little noticed, for vegetation is at no time suspended; the setting-in of the South-west monsoon is the most important day of the year. ”

“ The condensation of vapour from the ascending currents and their gradual exhaustion as they are precipitated on successive ranges is very obvious in the cloud effects produced during the monsoon, the southern or windward face of each range being clothed day after day with a white crest of cloud whilst the northern slopes are often left entirely free. ”

“ It is of course to be noted that the hot season monsoon is in general of greater strength than that of the cold season, because being usually a sea wind the air is fully charged with moisture, condensation takes place as ascensional movement sets in on reaching the land, and the latent heat set free strengthens the upward current. ”

“ In Australia, Africa, South America, and some parts of the North American continent monsoon influence in various degrees is felt, but in no place is the monsoon so important as in the countries bordering the Indian Ocean. ”

“ On the east coast the force of the north-east monsoon, which beats upon the shores of the China Sea annually from November to February, has kept the land for the most part free from mangroves, and the sands, broken here and there by rocky headlands thickly wooded, and fringed by casuarina trees, stretch for miles without interruption. ”

“ Nay, that monsoon is blowing from the warm current which sets up from the Cape of Good Hope toward the Caribbean Sea, and over the cold north polar current, which runs down between the continent and the Cape de Verdes. Equally untrue is the presumption that the air rises over heated portions of the earth elsewhere, and by reason of such heating. ”

“ When the storm reached the low point dividing the river, the house shook in the wind, and the rain pattered loudly on the palm-leaf roof, the thunder spoke in one prolonged roll, and the incessant lightning disclosed a turmoil of leaping waters, driving logs, and the big trees bending before a brutal and merciless force.
Undisturbed by the nightly event of the rainy monsoon, the father slept quietly, oblivious alike of his hopes, his misfortunes, his friends, and his enemies ”

“ It seems probable that at the northern extremity of this monsoon, where the tornadoes or hurricanes exist, that the air not only ascends but is in part converted into water, or otherwise diminished in quantity, as no account is given of the existence of any superior currents of it. ”

“ During the northern summer the south-west monsoon, which is sufficiently strong to bring navigation practically to a standstill except for powerful steamers, sets up a strong north-easterly drift in the Arabian Sea, and the water removed from the east African coast is replaced by the upwelling of cold water from below ”

“ Within a belt extending from 10 to 15 degrees on each side of the equator, seasonal changes of temperature are insufficient in range to permit of the occurrence of temperature differences adequate to the development of true monsoons. ”

“ He finds it hard to realize that, when the summer heats melt the Himalayan snows, and the monsoon currents, striking against the northern mountain walls, are precipitated in torrents of rain, the rush of water to the plains swells the river 20, 30, 40, or even 50 fold. ”

“ In the rainy season it is a rapid and dangerous stream. Most of these rivers swelled by periodical rains, deposit much mud and sand at their mouths. Some of them during the dry season are lost amid the sand and rocks.
In this colony the seasons are divided into Monsoons, of which there are two, annually; the one wet, and the other dry. The wet monsoon is called winter, and the dry, summer. The weather during the wet monsoon is disagreeable and moist, but the cold is not severe. Ice is never more than an eighth of an inch thick. Thunder and lightning are very rare and seldom violent. ”

“ Now, as this range of rugged mountains extends from east to west, the harbour, and consequently the principal part of the town and places of business lying upon its northern side, it is self-evident that the influence of the south-west monsoon, which prevails during the summer months, and is then most required to dissipate the vapours generated out of the earth by a tropical sun, can scarcely ever be felt on the northern side of the mountains. ”

“ The region of.—Upon India and its seas the monsoon phenomena are developed on the grandest scale. These remarkable winds blow over all that expanse of northern water that lies between Africa and the Philippine Islands. Throughout this vast expanse, the winds that are known in other parts of the world as the N.E. trades, are here called N.E. monsoons, because, instead of blowing from that quarter for twelve months, as in other seas, they blow only for six. ”

“ The agents which produce monsoons reside on the land. These winds are caused by the rarefaction of the air over large districts of country situated on the polar edge, or near the polar edge, of the trade-winds. Thus, the monsoons of the Indian Ocean are caused by the intense heat which the rays of a cloudless sun produce, during the summer time, upon the Desert of Cobi and the burning plains of Central Asia. When the sun is north of the equator, the force of his rays, beating down upon these wide and thirsty plains, is such as to cause the vast superincumbent body of air to expand and ascend. ”

“ The outer hills are lower, the monsoon current penetrates much further north, through deep valleys which run nearly to the foot of the highest mountains, and consequently the wet zone extends as far as the snows. ”

“ On the whole, the east monsoon blows steadily for a longer period than the west. The velocity of the wind is much less than in Europe—not more in the annual mean at Batavia than 3 ft. per second, against 12 to 18 ft. ”

“ The nights in the hot season are comparatively cool and pleasant. During the monsoon the climate is very damp, and at times even cold and raw, thick clouds and mist enveloping the sky for many days together. ”

“ We think it unnecessary to explain minutely the causes that produce variation in the monsoons. Every intelligent reader will readily conceive how the change of seasons and varied configuration as well as unequal arrangement of land and water, will reverse, alter, and modify the direction and strength of the monsoons. ”

“ When the monsoons prevail for five months at a time, for it takes about a month for them to change and become settled, then both they and the trade-winds, of which they are formed, are called monsoons. ”

“ Great numbers perish annually when these collapse and fill up at the commencement of the rains. The monsoon of 1826 having been deficient in the usual fall of rain at the commencement of the season, the mettades bred in such numbers as to become a perfect plague. ”

“ So also the calms, which precede the land and sea winds, are turned back. If, at the coming of the land-wind in the hills, we go with it to the coast—to the sea, we shall perceive that it shoves away the calms which preceded it from the hills to the coast, and so far upon the sea as the land-wind extends. Here, upon the limits of the permanent monsoon, the place for the calms remains for the night, to be turned back to the land and to the hills the following day by the sea-wind. In every place where these calms go, the land and sea-winds turn back. ”

“ Then the props and stays are taken away from the air, and the wind seems ready to rush violently hither and thither, and whenever there is from any cause a momentary disturbance of the equilibrium. In such an atmosphere, the latent heat that is liberated by every heavy rain-shower has power to brew a storm. Throughout the monsoon region, the people know beforehand, almost to a day, the coming of this interregnum, which they call the changing of the monsoons, for the annual changing at the same place is very regular. ”

“ In the north the rains also fall copiously at the change of the monsoons, more particularly in spring, at which time they are of the greatest utility to the crops, which are sown or planted about that time. ”

“ Monsoons, properly speaking, are winds which blow one half of the year from one direction, and the other half from an opposite, or nearly an opposite direction. The time of the changing of these winds, and their boundaries at the various seasons of the year, have been discussed in such numbers, and mapped down in such characters, that the navigator who wishes to take advantage of them or to avoid them altogether is no longer in any doubt as to when and where they may be found. ”

“ Monsoons in miniature.—Land and sea breezes are monsoons in miniature, for they depend in a measure upon the same cause. In the monsoons, the latent heat of vapour which is set free over the land is a powerful agent. ”

“ As the sun travels south after midsummer the temperature falls, the vast dry tract of the Asiatic continent becomes colder, the barometric pressure over the land increases, and the winds begin to blow from the northeast, which are called the northeast monsoon, and cause a second rainy season from October to December. ”

“ The greatest depth of rain which falls in the Indian ocean is during the time when the periodical winds, called the monsoons, change their direction. When the winds blow directly in-shore the rains are very abundant, so much so that, after a continuance of twenty-four hours, the surface of the sea has been covered with a stratum of fresh water, good enough for drinking, and ships have actually filled their casks from it. ”

“ What is the cause of monsoons?
Monsoons are caused by changes in the position of the sun. When the sun is in the southern hemisphere, it produces a north-east wind, and when it is in the northern hemisphere, a north-west wind. ”

“ Few climates in the world are more equable throughout the year,than the Neilgherries, equally removed from the winter and rough weather of our northern Sanataria, and the scorching heat of the plains. Indeed, there is a buoyancy and exhilaration in the air which is quite delightful, and the spirits of the invalid rise, and the elasticity of his step increases with the elevation, and,in the great majority of cases, rapidly conduct him to robust health and strength.
The monsoons seem to influence the seasons more than the declination of the sun. ”