Chapter 20: Section 2 (Climate and Vegetation)
II. Climate and Vegetation
A. Introduction
a. Much of India’s economy is driven climate
i. Its heat in the summer can cause schools to close and
businesses to shut down, if the summer monsoons do not bring
rain.
ii. Farms and crops will be destroyed in the rural parts of India
B. The Climates of South Asia
a. The monsoons are the single most important factor in India’s climate
b. 2 monsoon seasons
i. Summer: winds blow across South Asia from the southwest
ii. Winter: winds change and blow from the northeast
c. The Summer Monsoons
i. Last from June to October
ii. Pick up moisture from the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean
iii. As it passes over the hot surface, the temperature drop causes
moisture to fall
iv. Early storms do not being much moisture because the storms
lose their moisture at Ghat Mountains (along the South
Western border); as the season goes on, the storms avoid the
mountains and are farther south
v. Some parts of the regions get lots of rain. Bhutan gets the most
with almost 300 inches.
d. The Winter Monsoons
i. Cold air is brought with the winter monsoons, but it is mostly
blocked by the Himalaya Mountains; temperature average to
about 70 degrees.
e. People and Monsoons
i. Monsoons (in Asia) bring water to half of the world’s
population in the form of rain.
ii. Students start school in June when the monsoon come (the
Spring is their break because it is so hot)
iii. Nepal can suffer damage due to the amount of rain causing
mudslides
1. lack of trees help cause landslides
iv. Floods can destroy farms and villages in Bangladesh
1. In order to protect themselves, many villages are built
on stilts.
C. The Climate and Vegetation of Southeast Asia
a. From Myanmar to Vietnam, the climates are similar to South Asia
(tropical wet and dry)
b. From Vietnam to the west, the climate becomes tropical wet
i. It supports rain forests – thick forests that receive 60 inches of
rain a year
ii. Unlike the Summer monsoons that bring rain to South Asia,
Southeast Asia gets it rain from the winter monsoons
1. Moisture is picked up off the coast in the South Asia
Sea and dumped on the islands of Southeast Asia.
2. Southeast Asia’s contains the second largest amount of
rainforests in the world. The largest is South America.
3. A disadvantage is the number of typhoons that hit this
regions can cause widespread damage