A tropical climate marked by a seasonal reversal of winds and a sharp wet-and-dry rhythm, with a hot rainy season and a dry season, typical of the Indian subcontinent and much of South and South-East Asia.
- Found in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka), South-East Asia, northern Australia, and parts of West Africa and tropical America.
- Driven by the seasonal reversal of winds: onshore moist winds bring heavy summer rain (the wet monsoon), and offshore dry winds bring a dry season; rainfall is highly seasonal and uneven.
- Temperatures are high all year, with the highest just before the rains break; the year is commonly divided into the hot dry season, the rainy season, and the cool dry season.
- Natural vegetation is tropical deciduous (monsoon) forest, with trees such as teak and sal that shed leaves in the dry season to conserve water.
- The economy depends heavily on the monsoon for agriculture; a delayed or weak monsoon causes drought and crop failure, while an excessive one causes floods.
The wind-reversal mechanism, the seasonal wet-dry rhythm, the deciduous (teak and sal) vegetation, and the dependence of farming on a reliable monsoon are recurring world and Indian climate facts.
Tropical monsoon climate has a distinct dry season and deciduous forest; the equatorial climate, nearer the Equator, is wet all year with evergreen forest. Both are hot, but the rainfall pattern and vegetation differ.
Hot tropical climate with reversing winds and a strong wet-dry rhythm; deciduous teak and sal forest; the climate of monsoon Asia.