MANILA, Philippines—Monsoons are seasonal winds that bring heavy rains.

According to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, the country experiences
two kinds of monsoons—the northeast monsoon and the southwest monsoon.

The northeast monsoon, commonly called amihan, affects eastern Philippines from October to late March. Initially a cold,
dry air mass, it comes from Siberia and gathers moisture over the Pacific Ocean before reaching the eastern parts of the
country. It is characterized by widespread cloudiness with rains and showers.

The southwest monsoon, on the other hand, is called habagat. Characterized by heavy rains that last for a week, it affects
the country from July to September and brings the rainy season to the western part of the country.

Habagat Southwest Amihan Northeast: What Is Monsoon Weather?

A "monsoon" is a weather pattern; a monsoon has a different name in each country that it affects. In the Philippines, the
Summer Monsoon (West or southwest) is called the Habagat(ha-bag-at) and the Winter Monsoon (North or northeast) is
called the Amihan (a-me-han). The word 'monsoon' is believed to originate from the Arabic word mawsim (season), via
the Portuguese and then Dutch monsun.

A "monsoon" is a consistent wind pattern generated by a large weather system, that lasts for a period of months and
affects a large area of the planet.

Summer Southwest Monsoon - Habagat

Summer Monsoon weather is characterized by a strong, generally West or southwest breeze that is responsible for
bringing significant rainfall to the Asian subcontinent and to South and East Asia. The significant southwest monsoon
rainfall is a by-product of air passing over large areas of warm equatorial ocean, stimulating increased levels of
evaporation from the ocean’s surface; the southwest monsoon air, now laden with water vapour, cools as it moves
north and as it rises over land; at some point the air is no longer able retain its moisture and precipitates copious
volumes to irrigate rice fields and drench rainforests, sometimes causing severe flooding below hillsides that have been
foolishly stripped of forest cover by Man. The Summer Monsoon (West or southwest) is the predominant weather
pattern from late April through to early October each year, throughout most Asian tropical destinations.

Winter Northeast Monsoon - Amihan

Winter Monsoon weather features a generally less strong, East or northeast breeze that is cool and dry (compared to the
Summer Monsoon weather) with prolonged periods of successive cloudless days. The Winter Monsoon (North or
northeast) features cool and dry air that originates in a vast anticyclone - a weather system with a high barometric pressure
- which forms over Siberia, Mongolia and northern China during each northern winter. The Winter Monsoon air from the
anticyclone pushes outward in a clockwise motion from its centre and competes with the Summer Monsoon over a period
of a week or two, usually starting in late September and early October, before finally dominating the weather with a cooler
and drier northeast monsoon, in most Asian tropical and sub-tropical destinations, through to the following April.

There is no specific weather pattern equivalent to a monsoon season in southern latitudes because there is no continent
large enough to create the conditions similar to those that drive the alternate Winter Monsoon, as in the North. It could
be said that the southern hemisphere is perpetually in varying degrees of Summer Monsoon condition; Brazil and parts of
equatorial Africa occasionally experience some weather patterns that show some seasonal differences.
In the Philippines, Amihan refers to the season dominated by the trade winds, which are experienced in the Philippines as
a cool northeast wind.[1] It is characterized by moderate temperatures, little or no rainfall, and a prevailing wind from the
east.

As a rule of thumb, the Philippines' amihan weather pattern begins sometime in November or December and ends
sometime in May or June. There may, however, be wide variations from year to year.[2]

Throughout the rest of the year, the Philippines experiences the west or southwest wind; south west monsoon,[1] which
in turn is referred to as the Habagat. The habagat season is characterized by hot and humid weather, frequent heavy
rainfall, and a prevailing wind from the west.

The main indicator of the switch between the amihan and habagat seasonal patterns is the switch in wind direction. In
most years this transition is abrupt and occurs overnight. In some years there is a period of perhaps a week or two where
the wind will switch between amihan and habagat patterns several times before settling into the pattern for the new
season.

With the southwest and northeast monsoons that affect the Philippines all year round, it's no surprise that weather is
deeply ingrained in Filipino culture.

Ask about Philippine weather, and you'll learn the different names of the monsoons: amihan for the cool northeast
monsoon that brings mostly cloudless skies and nippy mornings; and habagat for the southwest monsoon that brings the
rains (and the typhoons).

Filipinos even have their own names for typhoons that differ from the system used elsewhere!

In recent years, the rise of “supertyphoons” like Haiyan have made the Philippines' weather a topic of significant concern.
Located as it is at the easternmost habitable part of the Pacific typhoon belt, the Philippines bears the brunt of incoming
storms: No tourist should fly in unprepared.

Northeast Monsoon Season in the Philippines

The Philippines' high season (and most of the fiesta season, too) occurs with the blessings of Amihan—an avian figure
from Philippine pre-Hispanic mythology that has since given its name to the cool northeast monsoon between October
and April.

Amihan originates from the chilly plains of Siberia and Northern China, blowing down into Southeast Asia beginning in
September. Resisted by the southwest monsoon, amihan finally breaks through and brings cool breezes and clearer skies
to regions usually battered by heavy rains. Amihan's reign ends around April when the southwest monsoon barges in from
the Pacific Ocean bringing rainfall and gusty winds.

Get your holiday playlists, decorations, and implements ready because the cold breeze of the Amihan season is now here
for us to enjoy.

As many Filipinos feel the start of Yuletide merrymakings, the transition period from the Southwest Monsoon (Habagat) to
cooler weather brought by the Northeast Monsoon (Amihan) takes place. This happens usually when we approach the
month of October through early November.

With this, Habagat diminishes in strength while the dominant wind feature now comes from the mainland region of
Siberia where strong anticyclones (HPA) usually develop. A high pressure area (HPA) exhibits heavier cold air from above
which tend to sink into the surface. As it does, wind blows away from the center swirling in a clockwise direction. The cool
dry season, which runs from November to March, prevails across the country dominated by the Amihan. It entails cool dry
wind blowing from the North, normally bringing slight to sometimes heavy rains along the Eastern sections of the
Philippines. This monsoon wind is relatively cold and dry, but when it interacts with Mid-Latitude Cyclones, also called a
“Frontal System” (See Fig-1), its tail-end bring about precipitation.
Figure 1. A Mid-Latitude Cyclone (Frontal System) which normally persist over Central China heading Eastwards.

Tail-end of a cold front

During the months of November through April, it is not only the cool dry wind associated with Amihan that bring blustery
wind condition and relatively good weather overall. When a deep-layered Frontal System exits the Eastern coast of China,
chances are its Southernmost edge of a cold front extending along the Eastern coast of Luzon, and in most severe cases,
it dips further South to the Visayas and Northern Mindanao.

According to the North Carolina State University in the United States, a monsoon climate is marked by dry winters and
wet summers. About a quarter of the globe experiences a monsoon climate. On that note, with the onset of the cool dry
months this year, we can expect a few strong Tropical Cyclones that may take a swipe over Luzon and Visayas.

In winter the land is colder than the sea, therefore the density and the pressure of the air over the land will be higher. As
a result, wind flows from land to sea. In summer the situation will be reversed. The land is warmer and the air over land
is lower in density; wind flows from sea to land. With extensive seasonal change of wind direction, it is called a "monsoon".

A monsoon is most noticeable in the south and east of Asia. This is due to the fact that in summer the Asian inland is
heated up by the Sun and its temperature rises quickly, thereby creating an extensive low pressure region, which leads
the air over the Indian Ocean to flow toward the land. This air current is called a "southwest monsoon" in Asia. The
southwest monsoon can bring the wet oceanic air into inland Asia and generate continuous precipitation. This will bring
abundant rainfall, sometimes even floods, to regions such as Indochinese Peninsula.

In winter, a high pressure system develops over the cold Asian Continent. A large amount of cold dry air blows out from
the continent, and will only absorb water vapor until it reaches the ocean surface far from the land. On the east coast of
the Mainland China, south of 30° N, this prevalent northeast wind is called a "northeast monsoon". In winter the
continental high pressure moves south. When the cold front edge arrives at the sea area near Taiwan via the East China
Sea, along with it comes the northeast monsoon with substantially strong winds. During the northeast monsoon season,
the north and northeast of Taiwan will experience cloudy and partially rainy weather.

A monsoon is most powerful in the south and east Asia, because the Asian Continent is the world's largest land-mass.
Other regions in the world that also experience monsoon phenomenon are Spain, the north of Australia, Africa (except
the Mediterranean region), the U.S. west coast and Chile.
The period October to December is referred to as Northeast Monsoon season over peninsular India. Earlier this period
was also referred to as "Post-Monsoon Season" or "Retreating southwest Monsoon Season".

Northeast Monsoon season is the major period of rainfall activity over south peninsula, particularly in the eastern half
comprising of the meteorological subdivisions of Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema and Tamilnadu-Pondicherry. For
Tamilnadu this is the main rainy season accounting for about 48% of the annual rainfall. Coastal districts of the State get
nearly 60% of the annual rainfall and the interior districts get about 40-50% of the annual rainfall.

Though the principal rainy season for Interior Karnataka, Kerala and Lakshadweep is the Southwest Monsoon season,
rainfall continues till December in these sub-divisions, the period October-December (Northeast Monsoon ) contributing
about 20 % of the annual total.

The increase in rainfall activity over Andhra-Tamilnadu coasts which takes place sometime around middle of October is
generally considered as the "setting in of Northeast Monsoon". Normal date of onset of the northeast monsoon is around
20 October with a deviation of about a week on either side.

The rainfall over south peninsula towards the end of southwest monsoon season is mainly in the interior districts and it
generally occurs in the afternoon , evening or early part of the night. As the season advances the rainfall is mainly in the
coastal districts with the interior districts getting less rain. It generally occurs during night and early morning hours .
Maximum rainfall mostly occurs between 2100 and 0300 hrs IST. Along the east coast rainfall during late night and
morning hours (2400 to 0900 hrs) is an usual feature of northeast monsoon. When there is a low, depression or cyclone
close by the rainfall occurs throughout the day.

Northeast monsoon rains occur in spells of about 3 to 4 days duration. Spells exceeding 4 days are much less (20%). There
are at times long spells of dry weather with little or no rain.