Monsoon Climate

a climate endemic to regions of the earth in which atmospheric circulation has a monsoon character. A monsoon climate is characterized by summers with heavy rainfall and winters with prolonged droughts. Correspondingly, the air humidity in the summer is significantly higher than in the winter. For example, in Bombay, India, 3 to 8 mm of precipitation fall during the winter, and 270 to 610 mm during the summer. The local geographic conditions in a number of regions result in variations of a monsoon climate. For example, Japan has heavy rainfall in the summer, as well as a significant amount of precipitation in the winter. Etesian climates, which experience the heaviest rainfall in the winter, prevail east of the Mediterranean Basin, where monsoon air currents move from the land in the summer and from the sea in the winter.