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Monsoon Season Facts & Worksheets

Monsoon is a wind change that frequently generates a highly wet or extremely dry season.

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A monsoon is a wind change that frequently generates a highly wet or extremely dry season. Although monsoons are most commonly associated with Asia, they may occur in a variety of tropical and subtropical climates, including numerous sites in the United States.

See the fact file below for more information on Monsoon Season, or you can download our 31-page Monsoon Season worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

History of Monsoon Study 

  • While the rainy season is an aspect of the monsoon, monsoons are more than simply rain. Monsoons can create dry weather. The word monsoon is derived from the Arabic word Mausim, which means “season”.
  • Edmond Halley, an English astronomer and mathematician, provided the first explanation for monsoon development in 1686. 
  • Halley was the first to propose that massive sea-breeze circulations are created by differential heating of the land and ocean. 
  • These concepts, like other scientific theories, have been built upon.
  • Monsoon seasons can fail, causing severe drought and starvation in many regions. India faced a similar monsoon failure from 1876 to 1879.
  • Sir Walker coined the name “Southern Oscillation” to characterize the east-west seesaw impact of pressure fluctuations in climatic data, according to the Climate Prediction Center. Walker discovered that while pressure rises in the east, it generally lowers in the west, and vice versa, when reviewing climatic records. 
  • Walker also found out that the Asian monsoon seasons were frequently associated with drought in Australia, Indonesia, India, and portions of Africa.
  • The circulation of winds, rain, and the weather was eventually recognized as part of a Pacific-wide air circulation pattern known as Walker circulation by Jacob Bjerknes, a Norwegian meteorologist.

What Causes a Monsoon

  • A monsoon is triggered by a seasonal shift in the direction of the wind. 
  • The winds alter as the temperature of the land and water change throughout the seasons. 
  • At the start of summer, for example, the land warms up faster than bodies of water. 
  • Monsoon winds usually blow from chilly to warm temperatures.
  • Warm air rising off the ground produces circumstances that cause the current to switch direction in the summer.

What Causes Rain During a Monsoon

  • Summer monsoons near the Indian Ocean are the ones that provide the most rain. 
  • Warm water in the ocean evaporates and rises into the atmosphere. 
  • In nations such as India and Sri Lanka, this causes the wind to shift direction, causing moisture to blow toward the land. 
  • The warm, moist air condenses and turns into rain. As a result, a period of high humidity and heavy rains can extend for months.
  • A winter monsoon occurs when the wind reverses direction in the winter. Winter monsoons are generally dry in these areas near the Indian Ocean.

Types of Monsoon

  • Monsoon season in summer: In summer, sunlight heats both land and ocean surfaces, but land temperatures rise quicker because of their lower heat capacity. 
  • The air above the earth expands as it warms, creating a low-pressure zone.
  • Meanwhile, because water has a lower temperature than land, the air above it has a higher pressure.
  • The pressure deficit over the continent causes winds to blow in an ocean-to-land circulation because winds travel from low to high-pressure areas (due to the pressure gradient effect) (a sea breeze). 
  • Winds moving from the shore to the land bring moist air inland. This explains why summer monsoons are so intense.
  • Summer monsoons are known for their heavy rains. Typically, they takes place from April through September. 
  • Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar receive a humid climate with heavy rainfall during summer monsoons because of warm moist air from the southwest Indian Ocean that sweeps toward them.
  • Winter monsoon: Winds are reversed and blow in a land-to-ocean cycle during the winter months. 
  • Because land masses cool quicker than seas, an excess of pressure accumulates over the continents, leading air above land to have higher pressure than air on water.
  • As a result, air rushes across the land to the ocean.
  • Although monsoons include wet and dry phases, the term is rarely used to refer to the dry season.
  • Compared to its wet summer counterpart, the Indian Ocean’s winter monsoon, which lasts from October to April, is less well known. During the dry winter monsoon, northeast winds blow. 
  • These winds emerge from the atmosphere above Mongolia and northern China.
  • Because the Himalayan Mountains block most of the wind and moisture from the monsoons from reaching the shore, winter monsoons in Southeast Asia are less intense than summer monsoons.
  • It lasts from March to April in North America, November to February in Australia, and November to March in Russia.
  • However, not all winter monsoons are dry. 
  • In contrast to the western section of Southeast Asia, the eastern Pacific coast of Southeast Asia has a rainy season in the winter. 
  • Winter monsoons transport moist air from the South China Sea to Indonesia and Malaysia.
  • Other monsoons: The Asian-Australian monsoon extends from northern Australia to Russia’s Pacific coast, including the Indian Ocean. Australia’s summer monsoon season lasts from December to March while Russia’s monsoon season is from June to August.
  • This massive monsoon wind system then reaches the Indian Ocean. It finally comes to an end on Africa’s Indian coast.
  • Monsoon winds are found in other places on Earth as well. The North American monsoon occurs just once a year, in the middle of summer from June to September. 
  • Warm, moist air comes northeast from the Gulf of California, while warm, moist air blows northwest from the Gulf of Mexico.
  • These two winds converge above the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in central Mexico. 
  • The monsoon delivers precipitation to the mountain habitat before moving north to Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States.
  • Summer temperatures in Arizona routinely exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit, making it harder to control wildfires. 
  • The North American monsoon is the principal water supply for the region’s arid habitats. 
  • It may, however, confound and disrupt daily life for people and companies who are not used to coping with severe rain.

How Monsoons Affect Health 

  • Because monsoon climatic zones have distinct wet and dry seasons, they are vulnerable to floods and droughts, which are dangerous to health.
  • Heavy rainfall during summer monsoons can create floods.
  • Floodwaters can drown victims and ruin structures, leaving people homeless and vulnerable to the elements. 
  • However, during the summer monsoon season, the most severe health concerns are diarrhea, dengue, malaria, and stomach and eye diseases. 
  • Every year, as the summer monsoon season approaches, Indian hospitals prepare for an influx of patients suffering from these conditions.
  • When floods damage water purification systems, illnesses such as cholera can spread through contaminated drinking water. 
  • Furthermore, disease-carrying mosquitoes grow in open containers that fill with rainfall, ranging from enormous water barrels and ponds to little coconut shells. 
  • Malaria, dengue, and chikungunya-carrying mosquitoes are abundant throughout the tropics. 
  • There are more mosquitoes because there are more locations for them to reproduce during the summer monsoon rains. This results in more mosquito bites, which spread illness.
  • Because clouds rarely give shade during the winter and the dry ground surface cannot cool by evaporation, heat waves are prevalent.
  • Water is limited this time of year, making water-washed infections frequent; these diseases increase when there is insufficient water for basic hygiene.
  • Meningitis, which kills one out of every ten sufferers, develops in Sub-Saharan Africa during the dry season when desert dust becomes airborne and breathed. 
  • Typically, the number of instances decreases with the arrival of the first monsoon rains.
  • The population of the affected region determines the number of people affected by both the wet and dry monsoon seasons. 
  • Mali, in West Africa, for example, has a rapidly rising population. Academics examine how people can deal with the same restricted water supplies throughout the dry season as the country’s population expands.

Effects of Monsoon in Agriculture 

  • Millions of people worldwide rely on monsoon rains for their annual rainfall. Monsoons are a crucial replenishment for life in arid climates because they bring water back into drought-stricken areas of the earth. 
  • The monsoon cycle, on the other hand, is a delicate equilibrium. 
  • Rains that arrive late, are too heavy, or are not severe enough can be disastrous for people’s cattle, crops, and lives.
  • If the rains do not begin when they are meant to, this can result in increased rainfall deficits, poor ground, and an increased risk of drought, which affects agricultural production and causes famine.
  • On the other hand, heavy rainfall in these areas can produce severe flooding and mudslides, agricultural devastation, and the death of hundreds of people in floods.

Monsoon Season Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about the Monsoon Season across 31 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching kids about the Monsoon, which is a wind change that frequently generates a highly wet or extremely dry season.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Monsoon Season Facts
  2. Four Pics, One Word
  3. Identification
  4. Word Search
  5. Fill In
  6. Time of Year
  7. Winter Vs. Summer
  8. Health Risks 
  9. Effects of Monsoons
  10. How Are They Related?
  11. Breeze Cycle

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens in the monsoon season?

When the ocean water evaporates, the wind changes direction. In some countries, like India and Sri Lanka, the air is blown towards the land. The warm air will then condense and cause it to rain. The humidity and rainfall can last for months because of this event.

Why is it called the monsoon season?

The word “monsoon” is from Arabic and it means “season.” Winds shift south during the monsoon season in India. This happens when the dry areas of the Himalayas and Siberia are shown. The desert in western India heats up during the summer, creating low pressure.

Where are monsoons most common?

The most significant monsoons are found in South Asia, Africa, Australia, and Central America’s Pacific coast. Monsoonal tendencies can also be seen along the Gulf Coast of the United States and in central Europe; however, they do not exist in those regions because of different weather patterns.

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Link will appear as Monsoon Season Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, September 30, 2022

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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