Tropical Monsoon Climate Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tropical Monsoon Climate - Term Paper Example Tropical monsoon climate is mainly found in the coastal regions of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, India, southwest of Africa, northeast and southeast of Brazil and French Guiana (Ritter, 2006). According to Glantz (2003), there are two monsoons dominating in Asia – winter northeast monsoon, which comes from November to February and summer which comes from may to September. They are the majority critical climatic factors that come with most of the regions precipitation. Asia is renowned for its annual drought and flood especially in Bangladesh and India due to seasonal shift of weather. While the flood alone covers 7.7 million hectares in India, it covers 3.1 million hectares in Bangladesh. Tropical cyclone is another major feature of climate in this region. In particular, it affects two areas – northern Indian Ocean, which affects Bangladesh and northwestern Pacific Ocean, which affects Vietnam and Philippines. EL Nino-southern oscillation (ENSO) is another extensive phenomenal that has major influences in climate in a number of countries. In Africa there are three major areas where tropical monsoon occurs namely the southern coast of western Africa at 5 degrees north and 9 degrees north latitude, the Congo basin, which lies between 5 degrees north and 5 degrees south, and the remaining part which lies in between 15 degrees north and 15 degrees south. The climatic conditions in Africa differ from tropical monsoon in Asia especially in Congo Basin and southern coast of West Africa where heavy rainfall is experienced all through the year. The mean annual rainfall ranges from 10 mm in Sahara and 2000 mm in equator and other parts of West Africa. Precipitation is caused by convection process while movements of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and large-scale air mass movement brings seasonal variation. Drought in Africa is inevitable – it recurs from time to time and as a result, food crisis is a big problem that puts the population at risk (Glantz, 2003). Tropical monsoon climate in America is common in no rthern parts of South America and Central America where important topography and climatological consequences are found. Rainfall is brought by general circulation of trade winds. Andes Mountains is a flat area where major humid part of South America lies. Salinger (2005) records that ITCZ controls the seasonal movements that are smaller than Southeast Asia and the general circulation of this area. Droughts are severe in northern part of South America unlike Asia where major hazard are cyclones and floods. In humid and sub-humid tropics, agriculture is very vital; take an example of Asia where agriculture is an important economic sector. According to Salinger (2005), Asia, in 1993, employed more than half of the labor forces, which brought 63% of the gross domestic produce (GDP). Most export comes from agricultural products that brings a great amount of foreign exchange earnings. In this region rice, being the major crop, constitutes the largest part of production while maize and whe at follow. Nevertheless, agriculture experiences vulnerability in humid and sub-humid tropics attributable to some factor. With the exception of Africa where food security has been a problem for years, agriculture is also vulnerable in other countries but with minimal severity. Tropical cyclone also causes severe damage to the agriculture sector especially in Asia. Crop and livestock