Eastern and Southern Asia

     The Climate of Eastern Asia. Eastern Asia faces the Pacific Ocean, and its climate depends largely on the seasonal changes of the monsoon winds.
Monsoons are winds with periodic alternations of direction. In summer the land heats more rapidly than the sea. The heated air rises upwards, and the land becomes a region of low air pressure. The monsoon blowing from the ocean where the pressure is higher brings much rain.
In winter the land cools more rapidly, the waters of the seas and oceans in that latitude remaining warmer. The pressure of the air over the land is now higher than over the water. In winter the mon­soons blow from land to sea and are dry and cold.
Thus are formed winds which blow one half of the year from one direction and the other half from an opposite direction-^-the summer and winter monsoons. The monsoons penetrate far inland, bringing heavy rains to Eastern Asia. Winters are cold and almost snowless. The January isotherm of 0°C in these regions bends far to the south of parallel 40°N.

The northern part of Eastern Asia has a temperate monsoon ell-matf with cold winters.
In the south of Eastern China, closer to the tropics, the climate is of the subtropical monsoon type. Winters are warmer, frosts rarer. There is a great deal of rain, mostly in summer.
In the Pacific Ocean often occur strong storms called typhoons, blowing from sea to land. Typhoons are dangerous for shipping and often cause destruction on the islands and coasts of the continent.
The Climate of Southern Asia. Southern Asia has no winter. Throughout the year the sun stands high above the horizon, and its rays are very hot. Winters there are warmer than summers in Moscow.
On the peninsulas of Hindustan and Indo-China blow monsoon winds. In winter they blow from land to sea and bring dry weather. In summer the south-western monsoon blows from the Indian Ocean, bringing much moisture. For this reason the summers are very rainy. These regions have a tropical monsoon climate
The Himalayas detain the moisture brought by the south-west­ern monsoon. At the southern foot of these mountains occurs the heaviest rainfall on earth. This place gets more than 12,000 mm of rain a year (20 times more than Moscow).
The Sunda Islands lying close to the Equator and surrounded by seas have an equatorial climate, hot and wet. Here it is always sum­mer, and temperatures are almost the same throughout the year. Heavy rain falls at all seasons.
Questions and Assignments.
1. Show on the map the directions of the winter and summer monsoons in Asia.
2. Determine the annual temperature variation on the island of Java (the Greater Sunda Islands) How do you account for the fact that the January temperature there is higher than that of July?