MONSOONS OF INDIA: IMPORTANCE, PATTERNS, PROGRESS, REPORTS

MONSOONS OF INDIA

Pink arrow shows the Southwest monsoon wind direction; green arrow shows the northeast monsoon wind direction

India's seasons are largely shaped by monsoons — wind patterns that affect all of southern Asia. The dry, cool weather of the winter season is caused by the northeast monsoon, generated by winds from the northeast in December to March. At this time of the year dry monsoon winds blow steadily seaward from east to west. The summer monsoon is the one that causes heavy rains from June to September. It is caused the southwest monsoon associated with winds blowing from the southwest. During the southeast monsoon (the second or autumn monsoon) the situation is reversed. This is sometimes referred to as the moist season or the retreating monsoon and it characterizes the weather from October to November. It occurs as the land cools down more rapidly than the sea and a low-pressure area develops over the ocean.

The summer monsoons in India form two branches: the first, the southwest monsoon, sweeps from the Arabian Sea and drenches the Malabar coast of western India and then sweeps down towards Sri Lanka. The second, the southeast, moves northward around the same time from the Bay of Bengal and drenches Bangladesh and eastern Indian and then curves off towards the northwestern part of the country. [Source: Priit Vesilind, National Geographic, December 1984]

The southwest monsoon blows in from sea to land and usually breaks on the west coast early in June and reaches most of South Asia by the first week in July. Because of the critical importance of monsoon rainfall to agricultural production, predictions of the monsoon's arrival date are eagerly watched by government planners and agronomists who need to determine the optimal dates for plantings. [Source: Library of Congress]

With onset of summer in India in April, the land heats up more rapidly than the ocean and the monsoon winds begin to blow from west to east from the Arabian Sea inland across the Indian subcontinent. At the beginning of the summer monsoon "a low pressure area forms as heated air above the land expands, and rises and warm ocean air moves in to take its place. Passing over the hills and highland, the ocean winds then drop their moisture as torrential summer rains." The rain falls from June to September. The wind blow from west to east from April or May to September.

Importance of the Monsoons to India

According to Reuters: One of the world's biggest producers and consumers of farm goods, India relies on monsoon rains to water almost half its farmland, which lacks irrigation. A monsoon failure can force New Delhi to import more edible oils and curb exports of some agricultural produce, sending international prices higher. [Source: Mayank Bhardwaj, Reuters May 29, 2022]

Annual average monsoon precipitation in India over 110 years; The long-term average has been 89.9 centimeters(35.4 inches) of precipitation; However, the monsoon varies over the Indian subcontinent within a plus or minus ±20 percent range; Rains that exceed 10 percent typically lead to major floods, while a percent shortfall is a significant drought

Farming contributes around 15 percent to India's $2.7 trillion economy while sustaining more than half the population of 1.3 billion. Other than watering farms and recharging aquifers and reservoirs, regular rains during the monsoon season can bring relief from the searing heat. Plentiful monsoon rains would boost rice output from India, the world's biggest exporter of the staple. India's surprise decision to ban wheat exports had raised doubts about some curbs on the overseas sales of rice as well.

Monsoon forecasts by the state-run India Meteorological Department are eagerly followed. Average monsoon rains raise the prospects of higher farm and overall economic growth. The meteorological department declares the arrival of monsoon rains only after parameters measuring the consistency of rainfall over a defined geography, intensity, cloudiness and wind speed are satisfied. It defines average, or normal, rainfall as ranging between 96 percent and 104 percent of a 50-year average of 87 centimeters (35 inches) for the season beginning in June.

Reports on the monsoon’s progress are issued. When annual monsoon rainfall has covered more than half of India, usually around mid June, and conditions are favourable for it to advance into central, northern and western regions, farmers accelerate sowing of summer-sown crops, which sometimes lags due to below-normal rainfall in the first half of June, especially in central India. [Source: Rajendra Jadhav, Reuters,June 20, 2022]

Monsoon Season in India

The Monsoon Season is rainy but still a good time to visit India if you make some adjustments. The monsoon begins in June and end in August, September or October with most of the rain falling in the first three months. But that isn’t always the case. Some monsoon-drenched regions receive most of their precipitation between mid-October and the end of December. The monsoon generally breaks at the beginning of June on the southwest coast of India, and gradually break in all parts of the country, except the southeastern areas, after that.

Rains tend to fall in short afternoon downpours during the monsoon season. The countryside is lush and green and beautiful but the jungles are full of leeches and dirt roads in remote areas become impassable. Often times the high humidity is more of a problem than the rain. Clothes don’t dry; fungus grows in shoes; and the weather seems hotter than it really is. There are also more mosquitos and other insects buzzing around than in drier periods of the year.

Monsoon Flooding in India, NASA

In much of southern India there are two monsoons: the southwest monsoon from mid-June to early September; and the northeast monsoon from mid-October to the end of the November. The rest of the year is dry with occasional showers. In West Bengal and Bangladesh the monsoon season lasts longer than other parts of South Asia. It can extend from April to mid-November.

The monsoon season in India more less coincides with the rainy seasons in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, China and Japan but is different from the rainy seasons on the west coast of Malaysia (from September to November) and rainy season in Singapore, Borneo, Indonesia and the east coast of Malaysia (November to January). The cyclone season is from June to October. Most cyclones hit the Bay of Bengal between Bangladesh and the east coast of India.

Hot Weather Before the Monsoons

The worst time to be in India is in May or early June, the months right before the monsoon. It is extremely hot at this time and it is not unusual for dust storms packing 65 mile per hour winds to strike New Delhi. Women sometimes collapse and die from heat exhaustion after laboring for eight hours in the fields and then walking many kilometers to haul water back to their homes.

Fist fights break out at water taps and profiteers sell gallon jugs of water for the equivalent f a week's pay. Industrial plants and movie houses shut down because there is not enough water in the rivers to generate dam-produced electricity. Elephants migrate from the parched forest onto the farms of villagers and the air smell likes iodine. The monsoon is supposed to arrive around June 1st, and every day it is late exacerbates the misery. [Source: Priit Vesilind, National Geographic, December 1984]

At the end of the dry season women place jugs on the side of the road in hope that they will be filled by water trucks. Dry season fodder for goats and sheep sometimes is so scarce, families are forced to climb trees and throw leaves down to their animals. Red dust from Rajasthan blows westward in the spring before the monsoons. The land is often baked so hard during that farmers have to wait for monsoon rains to dampen the ground before it can be plowed.

In the hot season before the monsoon many people beat the heat with a system called the desert cooler. It is comprised of a powerful fan that sucks air through water-soaked towels and blows the air through their houses. It is noisy but many people say it works better than an air-conditioners. It works the same way perspiration works: harnessing the cooling power of evaporation. People also use cooling evaporation by throwing water outside their houses and wet mopping their floors on the inside and utilize the shade keeping the drapes pulled when the sun is the hottest.

Arrival of the Monsoons

arrival of the monsoons, NASA

When the first monsoons arrive the rains can be spotty and fall only in some areas. An Indian proverb goes: it falls on one horn of the buffalo but no the other. During the week before the monsoon came to the Western Ghats journalist Priit Vesilind said he was served water he said looked like anti-freeze. "It had been filtered three times," the waiter told him defensively. In Madras he said deep-bore wells were sunk, plans were made to divert a river 250 miles away, and water brought in from steam-cleaned railroad cars was strictly rationed. And even see so people sleep all night in water rationing line to keep their place. [Source: Priit Vesilind, National Geographic, December 1984 [┾]

To bring rain 70 minute prayers are voiced to the gods; "miracle men' send telepathic rainwaves; and over hundreds of women dressed in red robes and carrying candles chant to the sky. "When a number of persons chant in a particular way," a Indian man told National Geographic, "it creates certain sound vibrations that affects the atmosphere and is acceptable for seeding the clouds. The priests don't know the scientific aspects of it—they only know the sound has to be in this fashion, in this way."┾

Describing the first rains of the monsoon, Alexander Frater, author of “Chasing the Monsoon” wrote: “The sky darkens, the wind strikes with a force that made our line bend and waver. Everybody shrieked and grabbed at each another...Thunder boomed. Lightning went zapping into the sea, the leader stroke of one strike passing the ascending return stroke of the last so that the whole roaring edifice seemed supported on pillars of fire...'The rains! everyone sang.'"

The monsoons often flood the streets of Kolkata. In the past pools of still, dirty water provided a vast breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitos.

Monsoon Celebrations and Everyday Life

The monsoons are of such importance in India that dark clouds rather than sunny skies symbolize happiness. Rain puts Indians in a good moods, fear of drought makes them depressed. Priit Vesilind wrote in National Geographic,"heavy rains are said to murmur the longing of a lover and a beautiful woman has hair as black as a monsoon cloud and eyes that flash like lightning.” [Source: Priit Vesilind, National Geographic, December 1984]

Young girls celebrate the coming of the monsoon by taking to swings in pairs, singing "At the First Swing, O my mother, the clouds appeared. Men have been known to shed tears of joy when the rains finally come and children's faces ignite with smiles and they sing "The lovely season has come to my country, The good season has come to my country. [Source: Raghubir Singh, National Geographic, February 1977]

In India, the monsoon is believed to have healing powers. It is regarded as a "source of spiritual inspiration, artist invention, miraculous medical cures and sexual freedom." Crowds often wait on the beaches of Kerala for the first rains of the monsoon. Poor families lather up and take baths and showers in the monsoon rains.

The monsoon season is critical for agriculture. Some 70 percent of all farmers in India are dependent on the monsoons. Some inhabitants of the Ganges receive a year-round supply of water through irrigation; others are at the mercy of the unpredictable monsoon climate which seemed to produce floods and droughts as often as it does sufficient rainfall.

Rickshaw pullers like the monsoon season even though it means they sometimes have to pull their carts through water up their chest. Why? They can charge higher rates. Street urchins sometimes plug storm drains with rags to earn money from people who need help restarting their stalled vehicles. Fisherman like the monsoon because it brings sharks, tuna and prawns closer to shore. People often die of snakebites during the monsoon floods as water-logged soil flushes snakes out of their holes.

Cherrapunji: the Wettest Place on Earth

Cherrapunji (53 kilometers south of Shillong, just north of Bangladesh) in Meghalaya State is often ranked as the world's wettest place. It receives an average of 1131.40 centimeters (445.43 inches), about 11.3 meters (37½ feet), a year. In 1993, it received 519 inches (13.2 meters). It holds the one month and one year record for rainfall. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it rained 366 inches (9.3 meters) in July 1861, and rained 1,041.8 inches (26.46 meters) between August 1 1860 and July 31, 1861. Many places in northeast India get more than a meter (three feet) of rain between July. Mawsynram, also in Meghalaya, is also very wet.. Another wet place is Waialeale, Hawaii, near an uninhabited peak on Kauai. It receives 459.99 inches of rain annually. Another very wet place is Lloro, Columbia.

Most of this rain in Meghalaya falls during the monsoon season from April to September when winds blow heavy moisture-laden clouds against an escarpment above Bangladesh in the Himalayan foothills where the town is located. Cherrapunji is located at the edge of a plateau at a convergence point of winds, clouds and an oddly positioned mountain range that traps monsoon clouds moving north from Bay of Bengal. [Source: Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times. August 2004]

The rainfall varies from light to medium to heavy and is present much of the year. According to the India Ministry of Tourism, it rains mostly at night and day activities are not disrupted too much by the weather, but I’m not sure if that can be believed. The heaviest rainfall is mostly from June to August September and during this time Cherrapunji becomes a sea of tiny rivulets.

Sometimes the rain comes in downpours. Sometimes it is an omnipresent drizzle. The air is so saturated with water, moss grows inside houses and black mildew covers the outside of buildings. Paint peels, food rots. To stay dry local people use unique umbrellas that look like upside down rattan chairs. After heavy downpours relent, when or if the sun peaks out, the vegetation turns vibrant green and rainbows may appear.

Monsoon Deaths and Damage in India

Fatal lightning strikes are relatively common during the June-October monsoon season. In 2019, year, at least 150 people were killed by lightning in August and September in Madhya Pradesh state in central India. [Source: AFP, May 31, 2020]

Intense thunderstorms often preced the monsoons. In 2017, a couple days, before the monsoons began, Reuters reported from Bhubaneswar: Summer thunderstorms in the run-up to the monsoon season killed at least 24 people and injured about a dozen in India’s eastern state of Bihar, officials said. At least five people died when their houses collapsed, and hundreds of huts were destroyed and trees uprooted in eight of the state’s 38 districts during storms that raged for several hours. Several people were killed by lightning strikes, having been caught in the open or having ignored warnings to stay clear of electricity transmission lines. [Source: Reuters, May 29, 2017]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Hockings, 1992, National Geographic, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India,, CIA World Factbook, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Encyclopedia.com, Library of Congress, Live Science, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Google AI, Wikipedia, The Guardian and various websites, books and other publications.

Last updated June 2026